Per Axios: https://www.axios.com/2026/04/22/trump-marijuana-rule-change
The Trump administration is expected to move to reclassify marijuana as soon as Wednesday, per an administration official familiar with the matter.
Why it matters: The move would make it easier to study medicinal applications of marijuana and could shore up support from influencers who support the research.
The move follows an executive order from the president last year to finish reclassifying marijuana as a Schedule III drug, which is a years-long process.
How it works: Reclassifying marijuana eases U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration barriers to researching the drug's potential use cases.
It would not immediately legalize marijuana, nor would it affect the sentences of those incarcerated for possession.
This would conclude the rescheduling process that began under Joe Biden back in 2022 that has been slowly working its way through administrative channels.
If these reports are correct, this would be the most significant cannabis reform at the federal level in over 50 years. The main benefits of rescheduling would be that cannabis businesses would be able to deduct business expenses on their federal taxes allowing them to pay tax rates equivalent to any other law abiding business in the US. Currently these businesses often pay tax rates of over 70%, preventing many from ever becoming profitable.
This would also dramatically change how the federal government views cannabis, as schedule 3 would now mean the US government recognizes that it has medical benefits. This would likely lead to guidelines for a federal medical cannabis program as well as federal protections for medical cannabis users, such as exemptions from drug tests, etc
Cannabis stocks are up massively on this news, with the main US cannabis ETF $MSOS halting initially and is now up 25% on the day. Individual names like $GTBIF, $TCNNF, and $CURLF are up well over 20% as well
The Trump administration is expected to finalize the rescheduling of cannabis from 1 to 3 as soon as today causing cannabis stocks to rally
byu/ZealotOfCannabis instocks
Posted by ZealotOfCannabis
12 Comments
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This is the second time this promise has been trotted out since Trump took office. It was in headlines last summer as well and never happened.
Sure he will
My favorite part is the “How it works” section not explaining how it works.
The DEA reschedules drugs. The president does not and cannot. There has yet to be any info on what the DEA is doing or going to do about this.
Rescheduling alone doesn’t fix the core problems in cannabis equities. Even if federal policy softens, the business model still has structural headwinds that have burned investors for years.
Ah yes his midterm polling will definitely skyrocket!
So the guy who invades countries on the flimsy bullshit of stopping the drugs is now pushing to sell more drugs openly?
If he had a mind, he’d change it more than his underwear
Cannabis stock holders have been beaten down for so long that I think we can let them have a little hope, as a treat.
So, this is just a boon to the pharmaceutical industry. It doesn’t seem like it will change much else, except maybe the level of penalties one can get hit with.
Would be nice to also have the SAFE or SAFER banking acts too.
Sure.
I don’t really see how this would cause the cannabis stocks to rise other than a hype bump. All it does is make it prescription only. Doesn’t really legalize it. States that don’t want it can continue to restrict it. In general the medical field still looks down its nose at it and pharmacies aren’t generally interested in handling it. So, this is a nothing burger with an attempt to garner votes. It would need to be move off the schedule completely.