After decades of federal gridlock, cannabis has officially moved out of the government’s most restrictive category.
President Donald J. Trump has signed an Executive Order directing the reclassification of cannabis from Schedule I to Schedule III under the Controlled Substances Act — a long-anticipated shift that acknowledges what patients, doctors, and state governments have said for years: cannabis does not belong alongside the most dangerous substances in federal law.
The American Cannabis Collective (ACC) called the move a meaningful correction rooted in science, lived experience, and patient reality.
“This Executive Order represents a meaningful and long-overdue acknowledgment by the federal government that cannabis does not belong in the same category as the most dangerous substances known to man,” said ACC Co-Founder Don Murphy. “By moving cannabis to Schedule III, President Trump has taken a decisive step toward aligning federal policy with science, patient experience, and the realities already recognized by a majority of states.”
For Murphy, the announcement reflects a personal turning point that has shaped his decades of advocacy.
“In 1999, while serving in the Maryland legislature, I had a conversation that permanently changed how I understood drug policy,” Murphy said. “Lieutenant Colonel Darrell Putman, a Vietnam veteran dying of cancer, told me he was using cannabis with his doctor’s approval and asked a simple question: ‘Do you think I’m a criminal?’ Remembering my own father’s painful death from cancer, I told him no. He replied, ‘Well, unless you change the law, I am.’ Two months later, Darrell was gone—but that moment led to the passage of Maryland’s Darrell Putman Compassionate Use Act and set me on a path of advocating for patients across this country.”
That experience, Murphy said, underscores the human cost of decades of federal policy that failed to reflect medical reality.
“For decades, patients like Darrell have paid the price for a classification system that ignored medical reality and human suffering,” Murphy continued. “Today’s action by President Trump helps correct that injustice and affirms that patients seeking relief should never be treated as criminals.”
While the rescheduling represents a major federal shift, ACC leaders emphasized that the work is far from complete.
“Reclassifying cannabis to Schedule III is a necessary first step—but it is not the last step,” said ACC Co-Founder Gretchen Gailey. “This decision may relieve certain federal burdens, including punitive tax treatment under Section 280E, and expand opportunities for research. However, patients, consumers, and businesses are still operating within a fragmented system that urgently needs comprehensive reform.”
Gailey also pointed to the need for Congress and federal agencies to build on the momentum.
“We commend President Trump for using executive authority to move this issue forward and encourage Congress and federal agencies to build on this momentum with durable, bipartisan legislative solutions.”
ACC noted that this milestone reflects decades of patient advocacy and state-level leadership — pressure that ultimately forced federal policy to evolve.
“As we recognize this important action by President Trump, our work is far from finished,” Gailey continued. “We will continue working across party lines until patients no longer live in fear, consumers are protected, and the injustices of the war on drugs are fully brought to an end.”
For patients who have lived in legal gray zones for decades, the move to Schedule III marks something rare in federal drug policy: a shift that begins with acknowledgment — and opens the door to what comes next.
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The American Cannabis Collective (ACC) is a patient-first advocacy organization working to align federal cannabis policy with science, lived experience, and free-market principles—putting patients and consumers before industry interests. Built by a team of conservative/libertarian-leaning policy professionals active in Washington, D.C., and state policy circles.
