Executive Order 14370, signed December 18, 2025, represents a significant federal policy shift, explicitly directing the government to complete marijuana's reclassification from Schedule I to Schedule III of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) and to expand lawful access to cannabidiol (CBD) products. The order frames decades of federal drug control policy as fundamentally misaligned with widespread state-sanctioned medical use, existing patient demand, and clinical evidence—characterizing the Schedule I classification not as a neutral legal status but as an active impediment to research and patient care. Forty states plus the District of Columbia already operate regulated medical marijuana programs, more than 6 million patients are registered across 43 jurisdictions, and the FDA has found credible scientific support for marijuana's use in treating pain, anorexia related to medical conditions, and chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting. The order also highlights that 20 percent of surveyed veterans reported reduced opioid use attributable to medical marijuana, underscoring the order's strategic framing as a correction of a long-standing federal-state policy mismatch with direct implications for pain management and opioid substitution.
The order establishes two primary directives with concrete policy consequences. First, it instructs the Attorney General to complete the marijuana rescheduling rulemaking to Schedule III as expeditiously as possible under federal law, including 21 U.S.C. 811—a step that would constitute formal federal recognition of marijuana's accepted medical use and materially reshape the research, commercial, and regulatory environment around it. Second, it directs the Assistant to the President and Deputy Chief of Staff for Legislative, Political, and Public Affairs to work with Congress to update the statutory definition of hemp-derived cannabinoid products. This is a substantive legislative push to preserve consumer access to full-spectrum CBD products that would otherwise become controlled substances when section 781 of Public Law 119-37 takes effect due to THC content thresholds—a deliberate policy repositioning toward broader lawful cannabinoid access, balanced against targeted safety restrictions. The order also calls for developing a regulatory framework covering THC per-serving limits, per-container limits, and CBD-to-THC ratio requirements.
Implementation responsibility is distributed across multiple senior officials. The Secretary of HHS, FDA Commissioner, CMS Administrator, and NIH Director are collectively tasked with developing research models using real-world evidence to improve access to hemp-derived cannabinoid products and inform standards of care, with explicit priority given to vulnerable populations including adolescents, young adults, and seniors. The order notes that only 56 percent of older Americans using marijuana have discussed it with their healthcare provider, framing this as an active patient safety risk given potential drug interactions. No specific implementation deadline beyond "most expeditious manner" is provided for the rescheduling process. The order does not create enforceable legal rights and is subject to appropriations availability.