By: Kayla M. Jacob and Rachael Jeanfreau
‘Tis the season for marijuana reclassification. And this time, it is not a drill.
On December 18, 2025, President Donald Trump signed an Executive Order directing Federal agencies to initiate the administrative process of reclassifying marijuana under the Controlled Substances Act from a Schedule I to a lower Schedule III drug. The Executive Order continues the Department of Justice’s May 2024 efforts to reschedule marijuana through proposed rulemaking.
However, before getting too high on the headlines, a sobering look at what reclassification does, and does not, do is needed.
Q: Is marijuana legal?
No. The Executive Order does not legalize marijuana. It merely directs Federal agencies to begin the reclassification process through administrative rulemaking. For now, the status quo remains, and marijuana is still illegal.
Even if the administrative rulemaking process is ultimately completed and the drug is reclassified to Schedule III, marijuana would remain a controlled dangerous substance and would not be legalized for recreational or general use.
Q: What does reclassification actually mean?
Marijuana is currently a Schedule I controlled dangerous substance, alongside drugs like heroin and LSD. Thus, marijuana is currently deemed to have no accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse.
The stated purpose of the Executive Order is to expand medical marijuana research. It follows a recommendation from the Department of Health and Human Services that marijuana fits the Schedule III classification due to its accepted medicinal use. Reclassification would ease certain regulatory barriers, including current restrictions on research, and shift how marijuana is regulated under Federal law. For example, marijuana could be available as a prescription subject to Federal regulation, whereas now, it is only a “recommendation” by a treating physician.
Cannabis-related business would also benefit, as rescheduling would allow improved access to financial institutions and capital and make available certain Federal tax deductions that are currently unavailable due to marijuana’s classification as a Schedule I substance.
Q: Does this change employers’ drug policies?
Not immediately. Employers’ drug policies may continue to prohibit marijuana use.
Further, as the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) explained in a statement on December 19, 2025, “marijuana is still a Schedule I drug” and it “remains unacceptable for any safety-sensitive employee subject to drug testing under the Department of Transportation’s drug testing regulations to use marijuana.”
While reclassification of marijuana could eventually affect drug testing policies, including employers’ obligations under Federal disabilities laws, requirements applicable to Federal government contractors, and regulatory standards governing certain positions, those changes have not yet occurred.
Employers should continue to monitor developments as the administrative process unfolds. Until that process is completed, and likely even thereafter, employers remain trapped in the familiar legal quagmire surrounding marijuana regulation, as States continue to pass legislation in this area, despite the fact that marijuana remains an illegal Schedule I controlled substance.
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