The executive order to reschedule cannabis marks a symbolic victory and a recalibration of decades of federal misclassification. Reclassifying cannabis as a Schedule III substance is a long-overdue acknowledgment of its medical utility and a sharp rhetorical shift from Washington.
But symbolism is not structural reform.Rescheduling alone will not untangle the web of barriers facing cannabis consumers and the industry that serves them. It will not resolve the profound dangers of cash-only operations. It will not eliminate the risks to cannabis consumers embedded in housing policy, immigration policy, workplace drug testing, or family law. It will not establish the regulatory clarity required for millions of patients to receive insurance coverage when they choose cannabis over pharmaceutical interventions that may offer less benefit or carry greater risk.
This moment will generate headlines and optimism, but without comprehensive federal reform to address continued criminal sanctions, collateral consequences, and financial obstructions faced by cannabis businesses, the communities most impacted by prohibition will continue to face disproportionate barriers.
Cannabis regulation is not a fringe experiment — it is a $38 billion economic engine operating under state-legal frameworks in nearly half of the country, which has delivered overall positive social, educational, medical, and economic benefits, including a correlation with reductions in youth use in states where it’s legal. Cannabis policy must catch up to political reality.
Anything less is not reform. It’s a delay.
Betty Aldworth
Co-Executive Director
Rescheduling Cannabis Doesn’t End Prohibition’s Harms…
