Since Congress enacted the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) in 1970, marijuana has been classified in Schedule I—the category reserved for substances deemed to have no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse.
In response to a journalist’s inquiry, on August 11, 2025, President Trump said that his administration was “looking at” potentially changing marijuana’s classification on the CSA to Schedule III.
This change would acknowledge marijuana’s accepted medical use and relatively low risk, and result in changes to how businesses are taxed. However, as long as marijuana remains on the CSA, arrests for marijuana and the barriers those arrests create to accessing food, housing, employment, and more, will continue. Only descheduling marijuana — removing it from the CSA entirely — would address these concerns and provide a foundation for federal legalization and regulation.
Read our fact sheet: Potential Changes To Marijuana Scheduling Under President Trump