Cannabis reclassification could 'open the floodgates' for research, scientists say

A long-awaited change in drug policy by President Donald Trump could bring scientists one step closer to understanding the harms and benefits of marijuana.

A long-awaited change in drug policy could bring scientists one step closer to understanding the harms and benefits of marijuana, the most commonly used federally illegal substance.

On Thursday, President Donald Trump signed an executive order that moved to reclassify cannabis from a Schedule I to a Schedule III substance, following through on a regulatory shift first pushed during the Biden administration.

“Decades of federal drug control policy have neglected marijuana’s medical uses,” the order says. “That oversight has limited the ability of scientists and manufacturers to complete the necessary research on safety and efficacy to inform doctors and patients.”

While the reclassification is intended to bolster medical marijuana research and won’t legalize cannabis at the federal level, the move comes at a time when use in the United States is at a high. Gallup data from 2023 and 2024 estimates that 15% of adults smoke marijuana, up from 7% in 2013.

The poll, which didn’t differentiate between medical and recreational consumption, showed the highest use (19%) among young adults 18 to 34, a group for whom studies have found cannabis to have damaging psychiatric effects. For example, a study published Tuesday in the journal Pediatrics found that using marijuana as little as once or twice a month was linked to emotional distress and worse school performance among teens.