On December 18, 2025, President Donald Trump signed Executive Order 14370, titled Increasing Medical Marijuana and Cannabidiol Research, directing Attorney General Pam Bondi to complete the rescheduling of marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule III of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) in the fastest way possible. And if you were watching the stock market that day, you would have thought cannabis companies had just won the lottery. Prices jumped. Financial headlines exploded. The mood was electric.

Bloomberg called it the most significant shift in marijuana regulation since 1970. Reuters echoed the sentiment. Forbes chimed in with nearly identical superlatives. You would be forgiven for thinking that marijuana was about to become as freely available as aspirin.

But here is the thing, and we say this with genuine frustration on behalf of every cannabis business owner, patient, and advocate who has watched this saga unfold for over half a century: nothing has actually changed. Not a single statute. Not a single regulation. Marijuana remains classified as a Schedule I drug, sitting right alongside heroin and LSD, as if it is 1971 all over again.

And before you roll your eyes and say, “But the executive order!” we need to talk about what executive orders actually do, and more importantly, what they do not do. Because the gap between this administration’s words and its actions on cannabis terpenes and the broader cannabis plant is wide enough to drive a truck through.

A Quick Civics Refresher: Executive Orders Do Not Change the Law

We know, we know. Civics class was a long time ago. But this matters.

The U.S. Constitution does not actually hand the president a magical pen that rewrites federal law. What Article II, Section 1 does is vest “executive power” in the President, and Section 3 says the president must “take care that the laws be faithfully executed.” That is a far cry from “the president can do whatever sounds good at a press conference.”

Executive orders are essentially presidential memos. They signal priorities. They direct agencies on how to interpret and enforce laws that Congress has already passed. They are, in many ways, a president’s way of saying, “Hey, team, here is what I think we should focus on.” But as the U.S. Supreme Court made crystal clear back in 1952 in Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer (343 U.S. 579), a president’s power to issue executive orders must come from either an act of Congress or the Constitution itself. Executive orders cannot override federal legislation or contradict established case law.

To be fair, executive orders have been used to do some genuinely important things throughout American history. Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation was technically an executive order. So was the desegregation of the U.S. military. And on the darker side, so was the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. These presidential directives can carry real weight, but their weight comes from the legal authority behind them, not from the drama of the signing ceremony.

Now, federal law does vest the U.S. Attorney General with authority to schedule, reschedule, or decontrol drugs under the CSA. So technically, the pieces are in place for something to happen. The question is: is this administration actually moving those pieces? Spoiler alert: not really. Not in the ways that count.

Been There, Done That: Trump’s Order Is Biden’s Homework, Resubmitted

If you have been following the rescheduling saga (and at this point, following it feels like watching a slow motion car crash), you will notice something interesting about Trump’s December 2025 executive order: it looks remarkably similar to what the Biden administration spent two and a half years trying to accomplish, from October 2022 to January 2025.

Let us rewind the tape. In October 2022, President Biden did something no sitting president had ever done. He filmed a public service announcement at the White House, posted it to YouTube, and openly called for marijuana reform. He argued that the criminalization of marijuana had resulted in disproportionate arrests, prosecutions, and convictions of people of color. He was not whispering it in back rooms. He said it on camera, to the country, at the White House. That took guts, and it mattered.

Biden backed up his words with action. He issued sweeping pardons for thousands of Americans federally convicted of marijuana possession. He directed federal prosecutors to use extreme caution before charging marijuana possession offenses. He signed the Medical Marijuana and Cannabidiol Research Expansion Act in December 2022, which boosted the number of federally approved medical marijuana research publications, including studies on cannabis and lung health.

Then, on October 6, 2022, Biden directed Attorney General Merrick Garland to review marijuana’s outdated Schedule I classification, the one that says marijuana has “no accepted medical use.” Garland followed through, issuing a 92-page proposed rulemaking on May 16, 2024. This came after Biden’s Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra had already recommended reclassifying marijuana to Schedule III back in August 2023.

But here is where the story takes a frustrating turn. The momentum stalled after the November 2024 election. Evidence surfaced that the DEA had been giving preferential treatment to anti-rescheduling parties. A pro-rescheduling group argued that the DEA had used its authority to sabotage the process and undermine the Schedule III proposal that it supposedly opposed. Then, on January 13, 2025, just one week before Trump’s second inauguration, the DEA’s administrative law judge canceled the merits hearing altogether.

So Trump’s December 2025 executive order? It is essentially picking up Biden’s unfinished homework, dusting it off, and putting a new name on top. Except there are some very big differences, and none of them are good for cannabis reform.

Meanwhile, on Planet Earth: Marijuana Is Still Very Much a Federal Crime

While the executive order makes for great headlines and even better stock price bumps, let us ground ourselves in reality for a moment. As of right now, today, this very second:

Marijuana remains a Schedule I drug. That is the same category as heroin. Let that sink in for a moment. The federal government still officially says that the plant responsible for a $45+ billion legal market has “no currently accepted medical use.” Meanwhile, there are over 30,000 licensed healthcare practitioners across 43 U.S. jurisdictions authorized to recommend medical marijuana to more than 6 million registered patients. The cognitive dissonance is staggering.

Simple possession is still a federal crime under 21 U.S.C. Section 844. Possession with intent to distribute, depending on quantity, is still a federal felony with steep mandatory minimum sentences under 21 U.S.C. Section 841(a). And transporting marijuana across state lines? Still a federal crime under 21 U.S.C. Section 952, even when you are driving from one legal state to another legal state.

That last point deserves special attention. Imagine you live in Portland, Oregon. You legally purchase cannabis products, including some with beautiful terpene profiles, that you want to bring to your friend in Seattle. Both states have legalized recreational marijuana. You would be driving through territory where weed is perfectly legal under state law. But the moment you cross that state line, you have committed a federal crime. Does that make any sense? Of course not. But that is the legal reality, and it is the reality that Trump’s executive order does exactly zero to change.

This federal authority comes from the Commerce Clause of the Constitution. Since the 2005 Supreme Court case Gonzales v. Raich (545 U.S. 1), the federal government has had the green light, pun intended, to criminalize state-legal marijuana use, cultivation, and commerce under its power to regulate interstate commerce. And that case law has not changed one bit.

Actions Speak Louder Than Executive Orders: What the Trump DOJ Is Actually Doing

This is the part of the story where things go from frustrating to genuinely alarming. Because while Trump’s executive order paints a rosy picture of an administration that supports rescheduling, the people who actually enforce drug laws in this country are doing the exact opposite.

The DOJ Rescinded Biden’s Hands-Off Policy

On September 29, 2025, in an internal email to Justice Department employees (notably not published on any federal .gov website), the Trump DOJ rescinded Biden’s policy of discouraging prosecution for marijuana possession offenses. Let us repeat that: while the president was publicly talking about rescheduling, his own Department of Justice was quietly making it easier to prosecute people for possession.

Biden had taken the opposite approach. He went on YouTube and explained that marijuana possession arrests and prosecutions disproportionately affect Black Americans. On average, a Black person is 3.6 times more likely to be arrested for marijuana possession than a white person, despite similar usage rates. That is not opinion. That is data, and Biden addressed it head-on.

Trump? Silent on that point. Completely, utterly silent.

Attorney General Bondi Has Never Been a Friend of Cannabis

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, who previously served as Florida’s state attorney general, was openly against marijuana legalization when Florida was considering its medical marijuana initiative. She called the 2014 measure “misleading.”

And while Trump, back in August 2024 when he was a candidate, posted on his social media platform that he supported Florida’s adult recreation initiative (which ultimately failed), his actions as president tell a completely different story. On February 4, 2026, Trump signed government funding legislation that definitively prevents Washington, D.C. from legalizing marijuana. You read that right. The same president who signed an executive order supposedly supporting rescheduling also signed a law blocking the nation’s capital from legalizing cannabis.

The contradiction is so breathtaking that it almost feels intentional. It is like somebody announcing they are going on a diet while ordering a double cheeseburger with extra fries. At some point, you have to stop listening to the words and start watching what people actually put on their plate.

Federal Agents Are Arresting People for $25 Marijuana Purchases

And then there is the enforcement reality on the ground. Under the 2025 Trump DOJ anti-marijuana policy, marijuana users face “rigorous” prosecution with “every prosecutorial tool” available.

On November 13, 2025, Wyoming’s U.S. Attorney Darin Smith announced the administration’s tough-on-possession policy, characterizing marijuana use as a “public safety hazard” and declaring that “the detrimental effects of drugs on our society are undeniable.” That framing conveniently ignores the well-documented racial disparities in marijuana possession arrests. But apparently, addressing racial injustice is no longer on the federal to-do list.

How aggressive has enforcement gotten? According to Reuters, DEA and ATF agents have been doing foot patrols alongside local police officers, actively searching for everyday violations. DEA agents went undercover to buy $25 worth of marijuana, and two individuals were subsequently charged in D.C.’s federal court with possession. Twenty-five dollars. Federal agents. Undercover operations. For an amount of marijuana that is legal in 24 states and the District of Columbia itself (for personal use, at least).

If that does not perfectly illustrate the disconnect between the executive order and the actual policy direction, nothing will. It is worth thinking about how these enforcement dollars could be redirected toward understanding the therapeutic benefits of cannabinoids and terpenes instead.

The DEA: Where Rescheduling Goes to Die

If you have been hoping that the Drug Enforcement Administration would ride to the rescue, we have some bad news.

DEA Administrator Terry Cole was confirmed by the Senate in a razor-thin 50-47 vote on July 22, 2025. During his confirmation hearing, he said reviewing the rescheduling process would be “one of my first priorities.” He even told senators, “It is time to move forward.” Encouraging words, right?

Except when Cole was actually sworn in on July 23, 2025, he released a list of his top eight strategic priorities. Cannabis rescheduling was not on the list. Not number eight. Not an honorable mention. Not even a footnote. The man went from “one of my first priorities” to complete silence in the span of three months. That is a political 180 that would make a NASCAR driver jealous.

To date, Cole has not committed to rescheduling marijuana. He has only said he would review the “process.” There is a massive difference between reviewing the process and actually doing the thing. It is the federal government equivalent of saying, “Let me look into that and get back to you,” and then never getting back to you.

Here is the frustrating part: Cole has the authority to actually move things forward, right now, today. The DEA has had no administrative law judges on staff since August 2025. These are the judges who oversee drug reclassifications. Cole controls their selection. He could appoint a new judge to lift the January 2025 stay that the now-retired Chief Administrative Law Judge John J. Mulrooney put in place. Lifting the stay would restart the public rescheduling hearings at DEA headquarters in Arlington that were originally scheduled for January through March 2025.

Cole could reinvite the approximately 43,000 people who submitted comments during the Biden-era rescheduling process. He could broaden the witness list to overcome the well-documented allegations of anti-rescheduling bias. He could acknowledge the innovation happening across the 24 states with adult-use programs and the 15 additional states with robust medical programs. He could recognize that the legal cannabis market generated over $45 billion in revenue in 2025, according to Statista. He could note that cannabis supports over 425,000 full-time equivalent jobs.

He could do all of that. He has the authority under the Administrative Procedure Act (APA). Nothing legally prevents him from taking any of these steps. And yet, none of it has happened.

What Could Actually Happen (But Will Not, Apparently)

Let us dream for a moment. Let us imagine a world where the people in power actually wanted to reform marijuana law. What could they do?

For starters, Cole could throw out the Schedule III recommendation entirely and start fresh with a lower schedule. The current administration could justify this because, dating all the way back to Nixon’s own 1972 Shafer Commission, marijuana has been shown to have low potential for abuse. Yes, you read that correctly. Nixon’s hand-picked commission told him in 1972 that marijuana was neither a gateway drug nor particularly addictive, and Nixon overruled them anyway because he was more concerned about anti-war protesters than he was about scientific evidence.

Cole could argue that cannabis has an even lower abuse potential than Schedule III drugs like ketamine and testosterone, and that it belongs in Schedule V, alongside anti-diarrhea medication, or even in a completely new category. The group Schedule 6 Framework has advocated for exactly this: a new Schedule VI that would recognize marijuana’s unique status as both a medicine and a product of state-permissible adult recreational use, similar to alcohol. This would allow marijuana to be used without a prescription, reflecting the reality of how it is already consumed in legalized states.

Or, if the administration wanted to go even further, Cole could listen to the 69% of the 43,000 commenters in the existing rulemaking process who, according to the Drug Policy Alliance, supported descheduling cannabis entirely by removing it from the CSA altogether.

And here is an interesting legal wrinkle that not many people talk about: according to Chicago attorney Alissa Jubelirer, the administration (through the Attorney General) could potentially skip the entire APA public comment process and reschedule marijuana by fulfilling international treaty requirements. The U.S. is a participant in the United Nations’ Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, and the administration could issue a rescheduling order to comply with those treaty obligations, bypassing the lengthy public comment period entirely.

But none of this has happened. Not a single step. The executive order sits there, collecting dust, while the DOJ arrests people for buying a quarter-ounce of cannabis and the DEA administrator focuses on everything except the thing he said would be his first priority.

For those interested in the science behind cannabis and why this matters for patients, the growing body of research on psychoactive compounds in cannabis and the difference between cannabinoids and terpenes continues to demonstrate therapeutic potential that Schedule I classification was designed to suppress.

Welcome Back to 1970: Nixon Would Be Proud

With the Trump administration doing nothing at best, and actively backtracking at worst, we find ourselves in an absurd time loop, right back where we started in 1970 with President Nixon’s Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act.

Let us tell you something about Richard Nixon and marijuana, because it is one of the most infuriating chapters in American drug policy. Nixon hated marijuana. More accurately, he hated the people he associated with marijuana use, which in the early 1970s meant anti-Vietnam War protesters, young hippies, and, as his own advisors later admitted, communities of color. The war on drugs was never really about drugs. It was about having a tool to disrupt communities that the administration viewed as political enemies.

Nixon appointed the Shafer Commission specifically to study marijuana. And what did the commission find? That marijuana was not a gateway drug. That it was not addictive. That it posed minimal risk to public health. The commission recommended decriminalization.

Nixon ignored every single one of those findings and insisted that marijuana be “temporarily” classified as a Schedule I drug. That was 55 years ago. That “temporary” classification is now old enough to qualify for AARP membership.

And while the research on terpene benefits and the therapeutic properties of terpenes continues to expand, our federal drug classification remains frozen in the Nixon era.

Can Congress Save Us? (Do Not Hold Your Breath There Either)

With the executive branch seemingly content to issue press releases while prosecuting possession offenses, there is always Congress, which has the legislative power under Article I of the Constitution to actually change the law. After all, Congress created the CSA in 1970, and it could amend or modify it.

But in over 55 years, Congress has not changed the CSA to legalize marijuana. Not once. The closest thing we have had is the Rohrabacher-Farr federal budget provision, which started in December 2014. All it does is prohibit the DOJ from using federal budget funds to interfere with states implementing their medical marijuana laws. That is it. A budget rider. A little funding carve-out that has to be renewed every year.

That provision, which has been incorporated into federal Commerce, Science, and Justice (CSJ) budget appropriations under various names, means that the DOJ cannot use federal money to go after people in medically legal states who fully comply with their state laws. It was first tested in the Ninth Circuit in United States v. McIntosh (833 F.3d 1163, 9th Cir. 2016), and it has provided some protection. But it is a band-aid on a broken leg.

Last month, Congress dropped language from a funding bill that would have barred the administration from rescheduling marijuana. That sounds like progress, but removing a barrier to rescheduling is not the same as actually rescheduling anything. It is like removing the lock from a door but not bothering to open it.

Without federal congressional action in the form of actual legalization legislation, Gonzales v. Raich (545 U.S. 1, 2005) remains the law of the land. The feds have maintained the authority to criminalize marijuana since 1970, regardless of what individual states have done.

And so we arrive at the uncomfortable truth: until Congress changes the CSA and/or the Trump administration actually reclassifies marijuana’s schedule, marijuana remains federally illegal. Period. Full stop.

What the Experts Are Saying

Do not just take our word for it. Judith Cassel, a partner at HMS Legal in Pennsylvania and an administrative and commercial law expert who represents grower-processors, distributors, and dispensaries, has been characteristically direct: “Rescheduling of marijuana is not imminent.” She cautions her clients that “this is not a time where we can look to prior drug rescheduling actions or take a federal government statement at face value. We are, where we have been, still in a years-long effort to change marijuana’s federal status.”

That last sentence should be tattooed on the forehead of every cannabis investor, business owner, and policy advocate in the country. We are where we have been. After all the executive orders, press conferences, stock price swings, and breathless headlines, we are in exactly the same place.

The Congressional Research Service, in its legal analysis of rescheduling consequences, has confirmed that the president cannot directly change the status of marijuana under federal controlled substances law. He can direct agencies to consider rescheduling, which is what the executive order does, but it does not pre-determine any outcome. Everything still depends on the DEA completing its administrative process, and the DEA has shown zero urgency in doing so.

Why This Matters for the Cannabis Industry and Everyone Who Cares About Science

Here is why this is not just a political story. It is a science story. A health story. An economic story. And a justice story.

The Schedule I classification has not just criminalized cannabis; it has throttled research. It has made it incredibly difficult for scientists to study the neuroscience behind terpene effects, to run clinical studies on terpenes and pain management, or to compare terpene extraction methods in any rigorous, federally sanctioned way. It has created a bizarre situation where millions of Americans use cannabis legally under state law, where thousands of doctors recommend it, but where the federal government says it has no medical value.

The understanding of how terpenes work alongside cannabinoids to produce therapeutic effects, what scientists call the “entourage effect,” is still in its infancy precisely because the federal government has made it so difficult to study. Every year of delay is a year of lost research, lost treatments, and lost opportunities to help patients who are suffering.

On the economic side, the numbers speak for themselves. The U.S. regulated legal cannabis market generated over $45 billion in 2025. It supports over 425,000 jobs. It generates billions in state tax revenue. And yet federal law treats every single person involved in this industry as a criminal. Cannabis businesses cannot take normal tax deductions thanks to IRS Section 280E. Many cannot access basic banking services. They operate in a permanent legal gray zone that adds cost, complexity, and risk to everything they do.

Rescheduling to Schedule III, if it ever actually happens, would not solve everything. It would not legalize recreational use. It would not end interstate commerce restrictions. But it would provide tax relief, reduce barriers to research, and finally acknowledge what the medical community has known for years: cannabis has accepted medical uses.

For those interested in understanding the science that the federal government continues to ignore, we recommend exploring the latest research on how terpene biosynthesis works and the comprehensive guide to cannabis terpenes for growers. The science is advancing, even if federal policy refuses to keep up.

Our Nation’s 250th Birthday Is Coming. Can We Get This Right by Then?

Congress created this situation in 1970 by “temporarily” placing marijuana in Schedule I. As our country prepares to celebrate its 250th birthday in July 2026, consider this: marijuana has been federally illegal for more than one-fifth of our entire national history.

The original Controlled Substances Act was passed during the Nixon administration, by a Congress that was told by its own commissioned experts that marijuana was neither dangerous nor addictive. Fifty-five years later, we have an executive order that says the right things, an Attorney General who does the opposite, a DEA administrator who seems allergic to follow-through, and a Congress that cannot be bothered to fix a problem it created over half a century ago.

It is certainly time for a change. The science supports it. The economics support it. A supermajority of Americans support it (with support for legalization consistently polling above 65%). Twenty-four states have voted with their laws and their ballots. The terpene chart of medical benefits grows longer every year, and the evidence base for the best cannabis strains and their therapeutic applications only grows stronger.

But given what we have seen from this administration, its contradictory actions, its quiet reversal of possession protections, its flashy executive orders paired with zero follow-through, we are compelled to give you the honest assessment, even if it is not what you want to hear:

Do not hold your breath.

Disclaimer: This article is an opinion piece and does not constitute legal advice. The views expressed are those of the authors and do not represent the official position of any government agency, law firm, or cannabis business. For legal advice specific to your situation, consult a licensed attorney in your jurisdiction. All claims regarding federal law and policy are based on publicly available government sources, which are linked throughout this article for reader verification.