Politics
White House Touts Trump’s Marijuana Rescheduling Order As A Top ‘Win’ During His First Year Back In Office
The White House is holding up President Donald Trump’s executive order directing federal agencies to complete the process of marijuana rescheduling as an example of one of his “wins” during his first year back in office.
“In just 365 days, President Trump has delivered truly transformative results with the most accomplished first year of any presidential term in modern history,” a new article posted on the White House website on Tuesday says. It then goes on to list “365 wins from President Trump’s first 365 days back in office.”
Number 305 on the list reads: “Signed an executive order reclassifying marijuana to Schedule III, accelerating medical research and patient access.”
The cannabis item is included in a section titled, “Making America Healthy Again.”
While the White House is touting Trump’s signing of the order last month directing Attorney General Pam Bondi to expeditiously complete the process of moving marijuana from Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) to Schedule III, that has not yet occurred.
DOJ has so far not provided any updates or timelines on the rescheduling process since Trump issued his executive order last month, and Attorney General Pam Bondi—who has historically opposed marijuana reform—was not present at the signing ceremony.
A Democratic senator told Marijuana Moment last week that it’s “too early to tell” what the implications of Trump’s cannabis order will be—saying that while there are “things that look promising” about it, he is “very concerned about where the DOJ will land.”
“The ability of the Trump administration to speak out of both sides of their mouth is staggering,” Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) said. “So I’m just going to wait and see right now. Obviously, there’s things that look promising—to end generations of injustice. I really want to wait and see.”
Last week, two other GOP senators filed an amendment to block the Trump administration from rescheduling cannabis, but it was not considered on the floor.
Meanwhile, earlier this month, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) said a marijuana rescheduling appeal process “remains pending” despite Trump’s executive order.
A recent Congressional Research Service (CRS) report discussed how DOJ could, in theory, reject the president’s directive or delay the process by restarting the scientific review into marijuana.
Bondi separately missed a congressionally mandated deadline last week to issue guidelines for easing barriers to research on Schedule I substances such as marijuana and psychedelics.
