President Donald Trump on Thursday signed an executive order to fast track the reclassification of cannabis to a less-restrictive category of drugs because of its medicinal benefits, a move that neither legalizes marijuana nor endorses it for recreational use.
The executive order comes just about a month after Trump signed a federal spending bill that would effectively ban the sale of hemp-THC products, which have been gaining traction in some convenience stores, by November 2026.
Trump’s executive order, however, appears to open the door to further legislative conversation around regulating hemp-THC products.
“The Assistant to the President and Deputy Chief of Staff for Legislative, Political, and Public Affairs shall work with the Congress to update the statutory definition of final hemp-derived cannabinoid products to allow Americans to benefit from access to appropriate full-spectrum CBD products while preserving the Congress’s intent to restrict the sale of products that pose serious health risks,” the order reads. “This will include consultation with appropriate executive departments and agencies and authorities to develop a regulatory framework for hemp-derived cannabinoid products, including development of guidance on an upper limit on milligrams of THC per serving with considerations on per container limits and CBD to THC ratio requirements.”
Trump’s executive order calls for cannabis to be reclassified as a Schedule III substance from its current Schedule I status. Under its current categorization, cannabis is grouped with drugs like heroin and is considered to have “no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse,” according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).
Schedule III drugs include ketamine and are defined as those with “a moderate to low potential for psychological dependence, such as Tylenol with codeine,” according to the DEA.
“We have people begging for me to do this, people that are in great pain for decades,” Trump said in announcing the executive order, according to media reports. “It doesn’t in any way legalize marijuana in any way, shape or form, and in no way sanctions its use as a recreational drug.”
The U.S. Hemp Roundtable, a hemp-THC advocacy group, said the executive order gave it reasons to be hopeful that there might be some flexibility in the pending hemp-THC ban.
“We consider this executive order to be a direct rebuke to the hemp ban that was malignly attached to legislation that reopened the government,” the group said in a LinkedIn post. “This also gives strong impetus to efforts to extend the ban’s moratorium an additional 18 months to allow proper time for Congress and the Trump administration to develop the regulatory framework that ensures the safe provision of hemp products while cracking down on the bad actors peddling the unsafe products that the executive order calls out.”
CSP will host its inaugural Cannabis Forum March 23-26, 2026, in the Chicago area. For more information, contact Michael Marino, senior director of retail relations, at Michael.Marino@informa.com.
Members help make our journalism possible. Become a CSP member today and unlock exclusive benefits, including unlimited access to all of our content. Sign up here.