Trump : promotes research while easing restrictions on marijuana
Trump: On Thursday (local time), US President Donald Trump issued an executive order reclassifying marijuana as less harmful on a federal level, according to Al Jazeera.
Attorney General Pam Bondi must speed the Drug Enforcement Administration’s reclassification process in light of the Thursday action.
According to Al Jazeera, the United States has a five-tier categorization system for pharmaceuticals and other chemicals, with Schedule I being the most restricted and Schedule V being the least.
In the past, marijuana was categorized among strong drugs like heroin and LSD under Schedule I. It would be expedited to Schedule III, a level that includes ketamine and anabolic steroids, with Thursday’s ruling.
According to Al Jazeera, Trump said that the move “is not the legalization” of marijuana and that it “in no way sanctions its use as a recreational drug.”
However, because studies on Schedule III medicines need far less permission than those on Schedule I substances, the shift will facilitate research on marijuana.
The shift is popular “because it leads to tremendous amounts of research that can’t be done unless you reclassify, so we are looking at that very strongly,” Trump told reporters earlier this week.
The modification is consistent with the legalization of marijuana for both medicinal and recreational purposes in a number of states. Due to a mishmash of state-level laws that conflict with federal law, marijuana is still prohibited.
According to Al Jazeera, former US President Joe Biden has taken a number of actions to reduce federal marijuana-related punishments, including a mass pardon for people who received severe terms for mere possession.
Minority communities have been disproportionately impacted by these convictions, which have contributed to mass imprisonment in the United States.
According to Al Jazeera, the Biden administration had also started the process of reclassifying marijuana to Schedule III, but the work was not finished before Biden departed office in January.
According to Gallup surveys, popular support for legalizing marijuana for recreational use has almost doubled in recent years, rising from 36% in 2005 to 68% in 2024, as reported by Al Jazeera.