On April 23, 2026, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche announced that the Justice Department ordered the rescheduling of marijuana products that are FDA-approved or regulated by a state medical marijuana program. These products will move from Schedule I to Schedule III of the Controlled Substances Act (“CSA”). Today’s order also creates an expedited DEA registration framework for state-licensed medical marijuana businesses.
We previously covered President Trump’s December 18, 2025, executive order to fast-track rescheduling. But news had been quiet on rescheduling for months, making today’s groundbreaking announcement, while welcome, a bit unexpected. In this post, we quickly highlight what today’s DOJ order does and does not do, and we look ahead at what’s to come.
It’s important to note that today’s order does not reschedule all marijuana to Schedule III. First and foremost, today’s order has no impact on adult-use (“recreational”) marijuana. Instead, Acting AG Blanche has set a new administrative hearing on rulemaking initiated during the Biden administration to consider broader rescheduling of marijuana. That hearing will begin on June 29, 2026, and conclude no later than July 15, 2026.
The prior rulemaking proceedings were stuck in a quagmire over the integrity of actions taken by the last DEA administrator—who allegedly was undermining the rescheduling process. Today’s announcement indicates that the DEA will “move more efficiently toward the completion of marijuana’s complete redesignation. This action will accelerate the administrative process, include firm deadlines, and allow DEA to proceed in the most expeditious manner consistent with federal law.” Today’s actions and announcements are concrete evidence that President Trump’s December 18, 2025, executive order is actually proceeding forward, something all in the cannabis industry can celebrate.
The substance of today’s order to reschedule state-licensed medical marijuana is fascinating. Acting AG Blanche based his authority on 21 USC 811(d)(1), a provision of the CSA that allows the AG to reschedule a controlled substance to better comport with the United States’s international treaty obligations. The U.S. is party to two treaties that concern marijuana—the U.N. Single Convention on Narcotics and the U.N. Convention on Psychotropic Substances. Acting AG Blanche’s order reviews the relevant history of these treaty obligations and concludes that the U.S.’s treaty obligations will continue to be met if marijuana is rescheduled to Schedule III. Acting AG Blanche ultimately concluded that there are several legally viable scheduling options for marijuana and that he was exercising his discretion to schedule marijuana in Schedule III based, in part, on HHS’s prior scheduling recommendation.
Because Acting AG Blanche made the rescheduling decision to comport with treaty obligations, there are some interesting and unexpected ramifications that come with today’s order. For example, state medical marijuana licensees will have to secure a DEA registration, and licensees will have to sell and then repurchase marijuana from DEA to ensure that DEA remains the monopolizing wholesaler of marijuana.
As we have previously noted, rescheduling of marijuana to Schedule III eliminates the punitive and unfair impact of IRC Section 280E on state legal medical marijuana businesses. Acting AG Blanche’s order acknowledges this point and goes on to encourage the Secretary of the Treasury to “consider granting retrospective relief from Section 280E liability for taxable years in which a state licensee operated under a state medical license.” Such a decision would be a monumental change in tax policy. We will monitor that issue closely.
Along with tax relief, routine matters such as access to bankruptcy, federal trademark registrations, Small Business Administration loans, credit card processing, greater access to banking and financial services, etc., all appear to be in play for state-licensed medical marijuana businesses. But the need for DEA-registered companies to fully comport with federal law will complicate the analysis for all of these issues.
This is obviously an emerging issue, and we’ll have many more details to come in the days and weeks ahead. Today’s news raises a host of interesting questions. Will we see certain segments of the supply chain rush to secure medical licenses? Especially with the wholesale tax that’s been enacted in Michigan, there could be a compelling case for many growers or processors to consider transitioning to medical licensure to avail themselves of the benefits of what could effectively be thought of as federal legalization. We will have more to come in the days and weeks ahead, and all stakeholders will be laser-focused on the administrative hearings on broader rescheduling at the end of June.