By Anjali Sharma
WASHINGTON – US President Donald Trump on Friday signed an executive order directing the federal government to move marijuana from the most restrictive category of controlled substances.
He argued the step would expand medical research and improve access for patients suffering from severe and chronic illnesses.
Trump called it “a big day in many reasons,” Trump said the decision would reclassify marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule III under federal law, a shift he said was driven by years of appeals from patients, veterans and medical professionals.
The action has been requested by American patients suffering from extreme pain, incurable diseases, aggressive cancers, seizure disorders, neurological problems and more,”
Trump said during a White House event before signing the order.
He stressed the move does not legalize recreational marijuana. “The order is not the legalization or it doesn’t legalize marijuana in any way, shape or form,” he said, adding that misuse of powerful controlled substances remained dangerous.
Trump argued the reclassification would make it easier to conduct federally sanctioned research into marijuana’s medical benefits and risks, including its potential use as an alternative to opioid painkillers.
“This reclassification order will make it far easier to conduct marijuana-related medical research allowing us to study benefits, potential dangers and future treatments,” Trump said.
Several cabinet members and health officials joined Trump at the event, including Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Mehmet Oz, and senior researchers from the National Institutes of Health, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Duke University.
Kennedy said the decision would help resolve what he described as a long-standing scientific impasse.
“This will finally allow us to study this issue and answer these questions for the American people,” he said.
He noted that past administrations had pledged action but failed to deliver.
