Trump Is Trying To Boost ‘Pathetic’ Approval Ratings With Marijuana Rescheduling Move, Senator Says As Democrats Push Full Legalization

Marijuana rescheduling is back on the menu, and the kitchen is hot. Washington is buzzing that the administration could bump cannabis to Schedule III—an inside-baseball shift that sounds like revolution, smells like compromise and tastes, frankly, like politics. The pitch goes like this: paperwork over prison, tax relief over raids, a tidy fix that leaves no fingerprints. Democrats are calling the move too cute by half. One senator blasted it as an attempt to “gaslight” voters into believing legalization just happened by press release. The truth is messier. Rescheduling would be a meaningful step, but it wouldn’t end prohibition, wouldn’t clear records, wouldn’t stop a single siren from wailing. It’s progress in the way moving your bed counts as redecorating—better sleep, same walls.

Here’s the brass tacks on cannabis taxation and policy. Schedule III status would finally let state-legal marijuana businesses take standard federal deductions, lifting the dead weight of 280E that’s been crushing margins for years. That could steady a lot of operators and ripple across the Michigan cannabis market, New York, Oregon—everywhere tax man meets dispensary. It would also lower some research barriers, opening doors for clinical trials that can turn anecdotes into evidence. But without Food and Drug Administration approval, the buds and gummies sold in dispensaries remain contraband in the eyes of the feds. The Controlled Substances Act doesn’t evaporate; it just reshuffles the deck. Courts have shown little appetite to nudge policy further on their own—remember when the high court swatted away industry hopes in U.S. Supreme Court Rejects Marijuana Companies’ Case Challenging Federal Prohibition? That’s the ceiling, for now. So no, rescheduling won’t magically legalize interstate commerce or erase the patchwork of state laws. It changes the math, not the map.

On Capitol Hill, the soundtrack is familiar: cautious hosannas and sharpened knives. Reformers are split between banking-first pragmatists and deschedule-now purists. One camp says, loosen the screws, let capital flow, and stop forcing small businesses to stuff cash into safes like it’s 1986. Another camp says, don’t confuse a tax fix with justice—expunge records, end the arrests, and acknowledge that policing has never been impartial. The banking crowd has a live thread to tug: a bipartisan bill and hearings that keep inching the ball upfield. That fight is far from abstract—regulators and former officials keep trekking to the Hill to testify, including the kind of regulator who knows exactly where bodies are buried and where the spreadsheet errors live. Keep an eye on moments like Former Top State Marijuana Regulator To Testify At U.S. Senate Banking Hearing This Week, because finance is the circulatory system of this industry. Meanwhile, legalization champions are re-upping their bills and their demands: federal decriminalization, expungement, and a clean break from a drug war that still stains court dockets and family histories.

Outside the marble halls, another fight simmers. Drug testing and workplace safety groups are hammering the panic button, warning that moving marijuana to Schedule III will endanger pilots, truckers, refinery crews—the people whose mistakes become headlines. You can hear the refrain in statements and letters, including the chorus captured in Drug Testing Industry Group Is ‘Sounding The Alarm’ About Marijuana Rescheduling As Trump Plans Action. Their argument lands differently depending on your ZIP code and your job. Plenty of workers already live under strict company policies and federal rules; rescheduling won’t flip those switches overnight. Still, the politics bite: business groups waving safety data, civil libertarians waving arrest stats, and both sides eyeing the same set of swing voters. Reports say the White House has floated timelines, then pulled them back; a major newspaper says an executive order is on the drafting table; meetings with industry brass and top health officials have come and gone. The tea leaves are there, the cup keeps moving.

So what does a Schedule III world actually feel like on the ground? A little easier to breathe if you run payroll at a dispensary. A little less Kafkaesque if you’re a scientist trying to move plant material from a vault to a lab. Maybe a touch more legitimate when your lender stops looking at you like a mob accountant. But the big promises—national legalization, expungement, a clean reconciliation of state and federal law—live beyond rescheduling. The next frontier is descheduling, banking reform with real teeth, and a science pipeline that can test big claims with bigger data. That last piece matters. As research expands, we’ll see more rigorous findings like those highlighted in Marijuana Components ‘Effectively Inhibited Ovarian Cancer Cell Growth,’ Study Shows. Policy should keep pace with evidence, not just rumors and election-year oxygen. Until then, we’ll keep reading the smoke signals and trusting our palates—because in this business, nuance is the whole meal. If you’re ready to explore the legal side of the plant where you live, take a look at our offerings here: https://thcaorder.com/shop/.