Recently, our federal agencies, under the prompting of the Trump administration, moved marijuana products regulated by a state medical marijuana license, and FDA-approved products containing marijuana, from Schedule I to Schedule III of the Controlled Substances Act. Public hearings, which are supposed to occur before such a move, will be held sometime in the future.

The public-facing reason for this move was to research cannabidiol and marijuana for medicinal purposes. However, CBD has been legally available since the 2018 federal Farm Bill authorized hemp production, and we did not need to reschedule marijuana to study it. For example, the recent executive order to federally fund and study the use of Ibogaine, a Schedule I hallucinogen, for the treatment of mental illness did not require rescheduling.