President Donald Trump is expected to sign an executive order addressing federal cannabis policy at 1:30 p.m. Eastern Time on Thursday, according to multiple reports citing the president’s schedule and White House officials.
Sources say the order is expected to move cannabis from Schedule I to Schedule III under the Controlled Substances Act. If that happens, it would mark the first time since 1970 that the federal government formally acknowledges the plant as having accepted medical use.
That’s not legalization. It’s a reshuffle.
Rescheduling means cannabis remains federally illegal, federally controlled and federally fragile. States would still operate under a patchwork of laws. Arrests wouldn’t magically stop. People in prison wouldn’t automatically walk free. Banking, interstate commerce and workplace drug testing wouldn’t suddenly make sense.
What would change is how Washington labels the plant and how much power federal agencies retain over it.
The White House has repeatedly cautioned that details should be treated as speculative until the order is officially signed and released. And even then, the real story won’t be the headline. It will be the fine print: how agencies interpret the move, how enforcement priorities shift and whether rescheduling becomes a step toward freedom or just a cleaner-looking cage.
Schedule III may be sold as progress. But progress isn’t a new category. Progress is descheduling.
High Times will review the executive order if and when it is signed, and focus on what actually changes, what doesn’t and who still pays the price.
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