In a turn of events that most thought would come on Monday, President Donald Trump signed an executive order to reclassify Cannabis live, signifying a new future for Cannabis research, as well as an uncertain one for the recreational THC and CBD markets.
While restrictions on things like banking, taxation and research are expected to be reduced, Trump made it clear in his announcement that this is not about Cannabis’ identity as an adult-use substance. “It doesn’t legalize marijuana in any way, shape or form, and in no way sanctions its use as a recreational drug,” he said.
The president did say that this move is in response to the overwhelming support he’s seen for Cannabis in the treatment of conditions such as cancer. In this vein, he also compared Cannabis to prescription drugs, warning, “just as the prescription painkillers may have legitimate uses but can also do irreversible damage …” Later, tacking on that “it’s never safe to use.”
Those who were hoping there would be a loosening of restrictions and stigma around Cannabis use were instead reminded by this broadcast that this executive order is about researching CBD and certain cannabinoids as possible medications.
What is Schedule III?
According to the Controlled Substances Act, a Schedule III substance is something with a low potential for physical or psychological dependence and accepted medical use. Vicodin, Valium, Percocet, Xanax and ketamine are all examples of substances in this category. With this decision comes a clear statement from the administration that Cannabis has positive benefits to people’s quality of living, but that this might not include you without proper research.
Dr. Mehmet Oz, the administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid, spoke to the audience, saying, “There are some clinical evidence showing that CBDs provide relief from common conditions that affect Americans.” Oz listed some of those conditions, including cancer and chronic pain, citing that “6 in 10 people who use these CBDs report that they improve their pain.” Oz also made it a point to say that the landmark decision was about giving “seniors access to cannabinoids.“
Oz said the reclassification is the delivery of the promise to find an answer to a difficult situation that every president has “whiffed on.” He thanked the president for always pushing for “common sense change.” Both Oz and Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. described how Trump has frequently called to discuss the issue with them on behalf of people like financier Howard Kessler, whom they said has tirelessly advocated to the president. Kessler, whom Kennedy said “without whom we wouldn’t be here today,” is someone who “drove this change in the schedule.”
Trump, Oz and Kennedy have all separately thanked Kessler for his work on this decision and for showing them the medical possibilities of Cannabis, with Kennedy stating on record that “cannabinoids and THC can have miraculous effects on chemotherapy-induced nausea, chronic pain, epilepsy, and PTSD.” This statement will hopefully help with veterans who’ve found it difficult to get approved access to Cannabis for treatment.
Kennedy went on to stress that there are also plenty of valid claims about the negative impacts of Cannabis, such as psychosis and adverse public health impacts, particularly to the country’s youth, but that most of this evidence is “anecdotal due to a lack of scientific studies.” The studies this reclassification will allow, he said, will provide guidelines on standardized dosing, along with exploring the difference between botanicals and synthetics.
Experts on Hand
A medical Cannabis researcher from Dana-Farber Cancer Institute said the reclassification would expand research potential especially “in older adults.” The researcher thanked the president for “supporting careful science-based research that puts patients first,” while another expressed that this rescheduling has the capacity to revolutionize Cannabis research in three ways:
- Democratizing the research process, giving access to all researchers
- Providing patients and researchers with access to reliable medicine for trials
- Organizing large, randomized control trials at a national scale.
Many watching the announcement echoed the sentiments of one researcher who said, “I never really thought this day would come.” For others, especially those who experienced the medical market, the green rush and the years that followed, this rings less as a herald of a golden future for Cannabis research and instead as one that paints Cannabis as something dangerously similar to prescription drugs.
State Cannabis markets have spent countless dollars on creating organizations to provide standardized dosing and suggested use for products that are reported to relieve things like chronic pain. Today’s announcement seems to imply that current laws and regulations — along with the work done by these individual states — are leaving patients and doctors without adequate guidelines on how to use these products, “even though they’re still being used,” Oz ominously added.
Nora Volkow, the director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, said the goal of this future research should be to understand what conditions Cannabis can help with, learn how to optimally use Cannabis for those conditions and discover to whom Cannabis might present a danger.
Where Do We Go From Here?
With so much of the future definition of Cannabis now being left to the results of these future trials, state markets now wait to see how this shakes out. Online sentiments are all over the map, with some saying that retailers will be left the most vulnerable, while others are pointing toward the CBD and THCa markets as the first in the line of fire. Regardless of your perspective on this as positive or negative, it is another incredible moment where we witness the plant, the industry and the culture evolve in response to a new era.
