Maine
Maine’s cannabis industry has mixed feelings over federal drug reclassification
Last week’s executive order by President Trump to reclassify cannabis as a less dangerous drug is being heralded by Maine’s marijuana industry as “the most progress in cannabis policy in decades.”
But members aren’t ready to celebrate yet.
At face value, reclassifying the drug from Schedule I to Schedule III could be a boon for Maine’s two cannabis markets by opening up more opportunities for research and allowing business owners to deduct ordinary business expenses, something that is currently prohibited for businesses dealing in or “trafficking” schedule I and II substances.
Many in the industry, though, say the directive lacks teeth. It orders the U.S. Attorney General to work faster on a process that has been in the works since May 2024 but does not officially reclassify cannabis immediately.
It also does not legalize the drug, which remains illegal at that federal level, and some fear any changes could open the door for “big pharma” to take over Maine’s craft cannabis industry.
A STEP IN THE ‘RIGHT DIRECTION’
” data-image-caption=”<p>Matt Hawes near the brite tanks at his Novel Beverage Co. facility in Scarborough in July 2023: Hawes is the head of the Maine Cannabis Industry Association and owner of Novel Beverage Co., which makes THC-based drinks. (Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Staff Photographer)
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Matt Hawes near the brite tanks at his Novel Beverage Co. facility in Scarborough in July 2023: Hawes is the head of the Maine Cannabis Industry Association and owner of Novel Beverage Co., which makes THC-based drinks. (Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Staff Photographer)Matt Hawes, a founding member of the Maine Cannabis Industry Association, said he’s approaching the executive order with a sense of “cautious optimism.”
“It does appear to be another step in the direction of more appropriately placing this in the social and legal framework of our society,” Hawes said. “It has always been impossible to rationalize it as a schedule I drug. It’s still hard to rationalize it as a schedule III.”
Schedule I drugs are the most dangerous, meaning they have high abuse potential with no accepted medical use. Heroin and LSD are also schedule I drugs.
Schedule III drugs, which include ketamine and Tylenol with codeine, have recognized medical uses but moderate to low potential for abuse.
The potential for rescheduling is a “move in the right direction” that will hopefully lead to de-scheduling, said Paul McCarrier, a medical cannabis operator and advocate for Maine’s recreational and medical marijuana markets.
It’s the most progress in cannabis policy in decades, he said, and will allow more research opportunities that have so far largely been stymied by the government’s Schedule I designation.
Scientists have long described the problem as a catch-22: They can’t conduct research on cannabis until they demonstrate it has a medical use, and they can’t show the plant has a medical use until they conduct research.
In 2018, state statute established a medical cannabis research grant program, which authorized the department to provide grant money from the state’s Medical Use of Cannabis Fund to “support objective scientific research” on the plant’s medicinal uses.
So far, that fund has gone untapped, but that could change with a new designation, McCarrier said.
“Maine has another opportunity to be a leader in the cannabis industry and we should not waste it,” he said.
The Maine Office of Cannabis Policy, the state’s regulatory agency, said reducing barriers to research and the “significant tax relief” that would come from allowing tax deductions are the only two changes the program is likely to see.
“Across the past three presidential administrations, the Justice Department has taken a non-enforcement approach against state-regulated medical and adult use cannabis programs, and OCP fully expects there to be no change to that posture,” the agency said last year after the Biden administration announced plans to reclassify the drug.
A LOT TO LOSE
Tax deductions will of course create “improvement in the bottom line” for small businesses, but the change should not be seen as a win for the industry, said Mark Barnett, policy director for the Maine Craft Cannabis Association.
Rather, he said, “it’s removing something that is a truly grotesque abuse of the businesses that operate in this space.”
Barnett is hopeful that the government will eventually de-schedule the drug, which he said is the “only legal, only realistic interpretation of this agricultural product.”
But he’s also wary that the Trump administration will try to intervene in a program that has historically been left to the states to manage.
“It won’t matter if you’re in the medical market, it won’t matter if you’re in the adult-use market, it won’t matter if you’re in the CBD market. We all stand to lose a lot through federal involvement in cannabis policy,” he said.
That’s also why Hawes, of the Maine Cannabis Industry Association, isn’t more enthusiastic.
“There’s still plenty of unknowns related to this situation, but we know we’re introducing a new regulatory agency in the FDA and it’s unclear what types of regulations they may impose,” he said.
If they continue to defer to the state, the long-running small business model will likely continue.
“If they come in with an iron fist stance that everything has to be done in an FDA licensed facility,” however, “the investments that it would take to achieve those standards are likely unattainable for any business in Maine,” he said.
Hawes added that the news of possible reclassification is just the latest in what has been a “dizzying” few weeks for the cannabis industry, which is also contending with the effective re-criminalization of hemp and dealing with recent recalls of recreational product and plateauing sales. There is also a referendum petition to close the recreational market and ongoing legislative efforts to increase oversight of the medical market.
A top Republican on the Maine’s Legislature’s watchdog committee said he plans to call for an investigation into interpreter fraud following reporting from the Bangor Daily News.
Sen. Jeff Timberlake of Turner, who sits on the Government Oversight Committee, said he needs to study the issue more ahead of the Legislature convening in January but expects he’ll file a letter asking the panel look into the fraud within MaineCare, the state’s version of Medicaid, the federal and state health care program for low-income people.
His comments came Wednesday, a day after the Maine Department of Health and Human Services halted payments to a provider that allegedly overbilled for interpreter services by more than $1 million. The BDN also published a story detailing a never-before-seen report written by a federal agent that raised concerns five years ago about potential widespread fraudulent billing for interpreter services in Maine.
“I think it’s something that we need to take a serious look at,” Timberlake said.
The 2020 report from a federal agent flagged Maine’s expenditures on interpreter services as entering the territory of waste, abuse or fraud. Claims were rising despite a steady or falling number of newly arrived refugees. The report came about a year after the federal government prosecuted three providers along with two interpreters, who fraudulently billed MaineCare for millions of dollars’ worth of interpreter services that didn’t happen or were overinflated.
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Data obtained by the BDN shows the levels of spending that were flagged by the reports have continued. A review of claims submitted and dollars spent on interpreters shows that consistently over the last 10 years, a handful of organizations by far have filed and gotten the most of the $41 million the state has spent.
One of them is Gateway Community Services, the Portland-based company that has faced allegations of overbilling from a former employee, first published by The Maine Wire, the media arm of the conservative Maine Policy Institute.
The move by DHHS came a day after U.S. Rep. James Comer of Kentucky, the top Republican on the House oversight committee, sent a letter to the U.S. Treasury that flagged Gateway along with a host of current and former employees as potential targets of a broader welfare fraud investigation being conducted by the panel. Comer’s letter directly tied for the first time Gateway to the committee’s investigation that has largely been focused on Minnesota.
There was no reaction from top elected Democrats on Wednesday. A spokesperson for Gov. Janet Mills, who is running for U.S. Senate in 2026, did not respond to a request for comment. Nor did Sen. Henry Ingwersen of Arundel and Rep. Michele Meyer of Eliot, the co-chairs of the legislative committee overseeing MaineCare.
Several candidates running to succeed the term-limited Mills have put pressure on her administration over the issue this month. One of them, health tech entrepreneur Owen McCarthy, praised The Maine Wire’s reporting and called for an audit of government agencies in a Facebook post.
Assistant Maine Senate Minority Leader Matt Harrington, R-Sanford, has raised concerns since May about Gateway and more broadly about the state’s spending on interpreting services. He said for months now he’s wanted top state officials to open an investigation into the spending.
As the new legislative session approaches, Harrington said he thinks more calls for action and investigation are coming. However, the calls won’t be new, he said. State republicans have been calling on Mills for months now to look into these issues, Harrington said.
“For me, I would just like to see it taken seriously, from [Attorney General Aaron Frey], from the Mills administration,” he said. “The silence is really deafening.”
Over the past year, Bangor Daily News photographers and reporters took hundreds of photos that captured the myriad of people and places that defined Maine.
These highlights are just a small slice of the many lives and experiences the BDN documented in 2025.
January
Jody and Cherie Mackin, who were homeless for three years, got an apartment in January. After moving into their home, the Mackins started volunteering at the warming shelter at the Mansion Church to give back to the community that helped them find their way out of homelessness. Credit: Linda Coan O’Kresik / BDN
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February
Rep. Laurel Libby, R-Auburn, speaks on the floor of the Maine House of Representatives at the State House in Augusta on Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2025. Libby was a significant figure as Maine battled Trump administration directives to restrict transgender girls from participating on the school team that aligns with their gender, among other policies recognizing transgender people under state law. Credit: Linda Coan O’Kresik / BDN
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March
Caribou captain Madelynn Deprey celebrates toward the crowd after an emotional overtime win in the Class B state basketball championship game on March 1, 2025, at the Cross Insurance Arena in Portland. Credit: Emilyn Smith / BDN
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U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Diane Dunn, the adjutant general of the Maine National Guard, answers a reporter’s questions in her office at the Maine National Guard headquarters at Camp Chamberlain in Augusta on March 31, 2025. She was one source that the BDN talked to in an investigation into the culture that allowed sexual assault and harassment in the organization to go unchecked. Credit: Sawyer Loftus / BDN
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April
Rebecca Nicolino Parsons and her service dog Otis are photographed on the footbridge in Bangor in April. The Maine Human Rights Commission ruled that there are “reasonable grounds to believe that unlawful discrimination occurred” at Hellas Condominiums by Old Town, Maine, against Rebecca Parsons. Credit: Linda Coan O’Kresik / BDN
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May
More than 300 cattle moved through Jeff Tilton’s auction barn in Corinth on May 10 for the annual spring sale, one of the only places Maine farmers can consistently buy and sell livestock. It takes roughly two weeks to line up trucking, buyers, sellers, vaccinations, ear tags and pens, plus sorting, separating and weighing the animals when they arrive. Credit: Elizabeth Walztoni / BDN
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June
A Sargent truck was the first to travel the new I-395/Route 9 connector following a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the grand opening. The new connector was a point of controversy, especially for residents of Brewer, Holden and Eddington who had their land affected by the construction of the new highway. Credit: Linda Coan O’Kresik / BDN
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July
The entrance to the Mic Mac Cove Family Campground in Union is sandwiched between a variety store and the public elementary school Sunshine Stewart attended as a child. Stewart’s killing in early July rocked the small town of Tenants Harbor. Credit: Elizabeth Walztoni / BDN
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University of Maine President Joan Ferrini-Mundy poses for a portrait on the University of Maine’s Mall in Orono, July 21, 2025. The university system faced a number of challenges over the past year due to funding cuts implemented by the Trump administration. Credit: Sawyer Loftus / BDN
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August
Kristina Ryberg, 62, and Donald Jewett, 71, can’t afford their Bucksport property taxes this year after a hike that local officials have mostly attributed to using up the stored funds that offset the closure of the town’s paper mill a decade ago. “We’re about to lose what we worked so hard for just because we lost the mill and haven’t adjusted to that,” Jewett told town councilors in August. Credit: Elizabeth Walztoni / BDN
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September
On March 16, 2024, a Maine state trooper repeatedly punched Justin Savage in the face while he lay restrained in the driveway of his Limerick home, leaving him almost unrecognizable. The beating, captured on video, depicts a use of force that policing experts say is rarely justified. The Maine State Police thought differently. Credit: Courtesy Garrick Hoffman
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Cooper Flagg signs sports cards for kids before the 2025 Maine Sports Hall of Fame at the Gracie Theater on Sunday. Flagg’s mother Kelly Bowman Flagg was one of the inductees for her time as a player and coach at Nokomis High School, where NBA rookie Cooper Flagg would start his soaring basketball career. Credit: Linda Coan O’Kresik / BDN
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October
Dorie Henning, a nurse practitioner at the Islesboro Health Center, has seen an increase in tick-borne diseases — and fears about them — in her 11 years working on the island. Islesboro had a higher rate of these illnesses than any other Maine town between 2018 and 2022, according to state data. Credit: Elizabeth Walztoni / BDN
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November
Bangor’s new councilors from left Susan Faloon, Daniel Carson and Angela Walker are sworn in to the City Council on Nov. 10 at City Hall. Walker, who has a criminal record, drew criticism from right-wing media after she won a seat in the crowded 2025 Bangor City Council election. Credit: Linda Coan O’Kresik / BDN
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December
Alex Emery moves his belongings out of the encampment near Penobscot Plaza in Bangor where he was living when a cleanup crew from the railroad company CSX arrived early on the morning of Dec. 22 with construction machinery to clean up tents, trash and other remnants of the encampment. Credit: Linda Coan O’Kresik / BDN
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Maine has been blanketed with a fresh coat of snow from York to the St. John Valley.
The storm that began Tuesday will wrap up later on Christmas Eve, adding to the already measurable snow that has fallen in places.
Some communities have seen well over a foot of new snow, particularly toward the coast and western hills, while the north has seen but a dusting.
Here are the latest snowfall totals available from the National Weather Service offices in Caribou and Gray on Wednesday morning. These totals are preliminary based on reports filed with the weather service. No reports were available Wednesday morning for Lincoln County.
Androscoggin
— Lisbon, 16.8 inches
— Auburn, 16.5 inches
— Lewiston, 15 inches
— Durham, 15 inches
— Lisbon Falls, 14 inches
— Greene, 13.7 inches
— Canton, 12.5 inches
— Poland, 12.2 inches
— Livermore Falls, 10.5 inches
Aroostook
— Houlton, 1.5 inches
— Castle Hill, 1 inches
— Presque Isle, 0.2 inches
— New Sweden, 0.1 inches
Cumberland
— Freeport, 17 inches
— Cumberland, 14.5 inches
— Gray, 12.8 inches
— North Powna, 12 inches
— Brunswick, 11.8 inches
— Cumberland Center, 11.7 inches
— New Gloucester, 11 inches
— Windham, 11 inches
— North Windham, 9.8 inches
— Falmouth, 9.4 inches
— Raymond, 7 inches
— Denmark, 6.8 inches
— Standish, 6.5 inches
— Sebago, 5 inches
— South Portland, 4.9 inches
— Portland, 4.9 inches
Franklin
— Madrid, 8.6 inches
— Rangeley, 6.5 inches
— New Sharon, 5.5 inches
Hancock
— Orland, 5.5 inches
— Dedham, 5 inches
— Seawall, 5 inches
— Southwest Harbor, 4.7 inches
— East Surry, 4.6 inches
— Trenton, 3 inches
Kennebec
— Gardiner, 11 inches
— Winthrop, 9.7 inches
— Manchester, 9.5 inches
— Farmingdale, 8.5 inches
— Augusta, 8.1 inches
— Waterville, 3 inches
Knox
— Hope, 7.0 inches
— Union, 6.8 inches
— Tenants Harbor, 3.5 inches
Oxford
— Bethel, 10.5 inches
— Newry, 8.3 inches
— Porter, 6.5 inches
Penobscot
— Exeter, 7 inches
— Orono, 6 inches
— Brewer, 6 inches
— Hermon, 5.3 inches
— Levant, 5 inches
— Holden, 5 inches
— Carmel, 5 inches
— Hudson, 4.5 inches
— Bangor, 4.4 inches
— Newport, 3.5 inches
— Bradley, 3.5 inches
— Milford, 2.8 inches
— Passadumkeag, 2.5 inches
— Millinocket, 2 inches
— Medway, 2 inches
— Greenbush, 2 inches
— Kenduskeag, 0.5 inches
Piscataquis
— Monson, 7 inches
— East Sangerville, 7 inches
— Dover-Foxcroft, 6 inches
— Abbot, 5.8 inches
— Sebec, 4.8 inches
Sagadahoc
— Woolwich, 13 inches
— Bowdoin, 12 inches
Somerset
— New Portland, 5 inches
— Anson, 4 inches
— Palmyra, 3.8 inches
Waldo
— Winterport, 4.5 inches
— Belfast, 3.8 inches
— Searsport, 3.8 inches
— Liberty, 1 inches
Washington
— Jonesboro, 2.5 inches
— Baileyville, 1.9 inches
— Pembroke, 1 inches
— Eastport, 0.8 inches
— Whiting, 0.5 inches
— Perry, 0.5 inches
York
— Cornish, 6.7 inches
— East Baldwin, 6.7 inches
— Limerick, 5.6 inches
— Kennebunk, 5 inches
— Ogunquit, 4.7 inches
— Limington, 2.6 inches
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