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Marijuana rescheduling would bring some immediate changes, but others will take time
Michael Stonebarger sorts young cannabis plants at a marijuana farm in Grandview, Mo., in 2022. President Trump set the process in motion to ease federal restrictions on marijuana. But his order doesn’t automatically revoke laws targeting marijuana, which remains illegal to transport over state lines.
Charlie Riedel/AP
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Charlie Riedel/AP
President Trump’s long-anticipated executive order to loosen U.S. restrictions on marijuana promises to bring immediate relief for cannabis businesses — but only in some respects. And although rescheduling it as a lower-risk drug is touted as opening a new era for cannabis research, experts say it’s not as simple as flipping a light switch.
“It’s hard to see the big headlines of, ‘Marijuana rescheduled to [Schedule] III; marijuana research will open,’” says Gillian Schauer, executive director of the nonpartisan Cannabis Regulators Association, which includes agencies from 46 states. “You know, those things are not true as of now.”

That’s because on its own, Trump’s Dec. 18 order isn’t enough to rewrite federal drug policy that has stood for more than 50 years.
“The Controlled Substances Act [of 1970] does not grant any president the authority to unilaterally reschedule a drug,” Schauer says. Such changes are historically made through either a rulemaking process, or an act of Congress.
Many details will shape how the administration enacts Trump’s order, affecting the timeline and scope for easing marijuana restrictions. But when it does happen, rescheduling won’t automatically revoke federal laws targeting marijuana, and interstate marijuana commerce would remain illegal, Schauer says.
It’s not yet known how other policies might change.
“We don’t know what will happen to federal drug testing requirements,” Schauer says, until agencies issue guidance.
Here’s a rundown of other key questions raised by the rescheduling order:
The time frame depends on which path the DOJ takes
Trump’s order directs Attorney General Pam Bondi to “take all necessary steps to complete the rulemaking process related to rescheduling marijuana to Schedule III” of the Controlled Substances Act “in the most expeditious manner in accordance with Federal law … “

The directive evokes the process that started under former President Joe Biden. Under his administration, both the Department of Health and Human Services and the Justice Department advanced a proposal to reclassify pot from Schedule I, meaning it has no medical use and a high potential for abuse, to the lower-risk Schedule III, which includes ketamine, Tylenol with codeine, and anabolic steroids.
The Trump administration could resume the process that was already underway under Biden. But the new executive order’s mention of the Controlled Substances Act’s Section 811 hints at a potential shortcut.
“That allows the attorney general to move a drug to whatever schedule they deem is best, without going through the usual steps that are needed to reschedule a drug,” Schauer says.
The streamlined process was meant to ensure the U.S. can do things such as complying with international drug treaty obligations. But a historic precedent also links it to cannabis: In 2018, it was used to schedule the CBD epilepsy drug Epidiolex, months after it became the first U.S.-authorized purified medicine derived from marijuana. The drug was placed in Schedule V, the least restrictive schedule.
President Trump displays an executive order reclassifying marijuana as a less dangerous drug in the Oval Office on Dec. 18.
Evan Vucci/AP
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Evan Vucci/AP
Will the DOJ call for public comment?
The Trump administration’s approach to administrative hearings and public comment periods would also help determine the pace of rescheduling.
“I would anticipate, if they use that [expedited] option, that we would not see a comment period,” shortening the process, Schauer explains.
But rescheduling could take longer if the Justice Department follows the traditional, and lengthy, notice-and-comment process.
Again, Bondi has options that could speed things up. She could choose to issue a final rule after a public comment period, for instance, or do so without a comment period.
“Some of the calculation for that may be on the legal end,” Schauer says. Noting that some anti-marijuana groups are vowing to file legal challenges to block rescheduling, she adds that the DOJ will likely have to balance Trump’s call for expedience with the need to defend its actions in court.
If the rule is published for comment, interest would likely be intense: In 2024, the DEA’s earlier proposed rescheduling rule for marijuana attracted more than 43,000 comments.
Cannabis firms would get tax relief, but credit cards remain forbidden
Sam Brill, CEO of Ascend Wellness Holdings, a multistate dispensary company, says rescheduling could bring a cascade of positive changes to his industry. But one benefit could come immediately, he says.
“The biggest thing that happens overnight is the 280E, the restrictive punitive tax code that is set on us,” would no longer apply to marijuana businesses, he says.
Like other businesses, Brill’s company is obligated to pay taxes on income. But because their core product is a Schedule I drug, the IRS says that under Internal Revenue Code Section 280E, they’re blocked from claiming common tax deductions, exposing them to a higher effective tax rate.
Section 280E “does not allow us to basically deduct normal expenses that everyone else can deduct,” Brill says. “I can’t deduct the rent for my stores, the cost of my employees in those stores, my interest expense.”
Brill says that some cannabis companies, including his, say 280E should not apply to them — but the IRS disagrees. As a result, Brill says, his company sets aside a large reserve fund in case the IRS comes after them.
“For 2024 alone, the value of this reserve” was about $38 million, Brill says, “which includes interest and penalties.”
Brill hopes marijuana’s changing status might also eventually lead to other restrictions falling, especially the inability of cannabis operations to accept credit cards. Most financial institutions refuse to provide basic banking services to state-authorized marijuana businesses, due to potential liability.
“The lack of the use of a credit card is really one of the biggest challenges for customers,” he says. Citing the importance of payday, Brill says: “For us, Friday by far is the biggest day every single week because this is a cash business.”
Medical research
Scientists welcomed news in 2023 that the Biden administration was moving toward reclassifying marijuana, and Trump says his move will boost medical research. But both then and now, there are caveats.
One benefit of the new rules is that they wouldn’t require marijuana researchers to go through the onerous process of obtaining a Schedule I license, and they would also ease rigorous laboratory regulations.
“You have very stringent requirements, for example, for storage and security and reporting all of these things,” neuroscientist Staci Gruber, of McLean Hospital in Massachusetts and Harvard Medical School, told NPR last year.
But another obstacle promises to be more stubborn: finding marijuana to study. The U.S. requires researchers to obtain marijuana from a handful of sources, which is itself an improvement over decades in which they were compelled to use one facility based at the University of Mississippi.
And, as Schauer notes, federal rules about sourcing marijuana have been decided separately from the controlled substances schedule.
“This does a little to make research easier,” Schauer says of the current rescheduling effort. “But there’s a lot that will still be challenging in researching cannabis unless we see a lot of agency policies change and adjust.”
News
Trump’s name must come off the Kennedy Center by June 12
Lawyers for what is currently called the Trump Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts are instructing staff to immediately begin switching the name of the facility back to its original title.
The instructions, laid out in a memo sent Thursday by the center’s general counsel and obtained by CBS News, are the first official signal the national arts hub is complying with a federal court order to drop President Trump’s name and reconsider plans to close for two years of renovations.
U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper last week ruled in favor of Democratic Rep. Joyce Beatty of Ohio, a member of the Kennedy Center’s Board of Trustees, who filed a lawsuit challenging the institution’s name change and plans to close for two years for extensive repairs beginning this summer.
Cooper found the board had overstepped its authority and ordered the president’s name to be removed from “the institution’s title, as represented on the façade of the Center, any other physical or digital signage, and official materials.”
The memo to staff Thursday said staff “must immediately change email signatures, letterhead, and other documents to reflect the name as ‘The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts,’ or ‘Kennedy Center.’”
Changes to interior and exterior signage and any furniture carrying the current name must be switched back by next Friday, according to the memo.
The Kennedy Center didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
The memo also says center officials still are “considering their options and will provide further guidance shortly” on whether the center will remain open after July 5, when extensive renovations costing $257 million are set to begin.
In his order, Cooper agreed renovations to the arts center are “sorely needed,” but he wrote his preliminary injunction does not “categorically” bar the board from closing the Kennedy Center, “should it come to this decision anew after independently balancing its multiple obligations to the Center in a prudent fashion.”
“By way of this opinion, the Court does not purport to dictate how the Center should be run, nor does it prescribe any particular plan for the institution — construction, closure, or otherwise — moving forward,” he wrote. “It simply holds the Kennedy Center Board to certain minimum requirements imposed by law. Beyond that, the Court will let the parties play on.”
In the early weeks of his second term, Mr. Trump replaced several members of the center’s Board of Trustees with senior members of his administration and close allies, who then elected him as chair.
In December, the Kennedy Center’s board voted to change the performing arts institution’s name to The Donald J. Trump and The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts. Within hours, the Kennedy Center’s website was updated to read “The Trump Kennedy Center” and crews went to work adding Mr. Trump’s name to the building’s facade. But lawmakers and legal scholars said such a change required congressional action.
Several artists who were set to perform at the institution canceled performances and the executive director of the National Symphony Orchestra, which performs at the Kennedy Center, left for a new job.
News
National Guard has done little to reduce violent crime in D.C., a new study finds
National Guard members stand watch near the Lincoln Memorial on the morning of Memorial Day in Washington, DC, May 25, 2026.
Alex Wroblewski/AFP via Getty Images
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Alex Wroblewski/AFP via Getty Images
President Trump’s deployment of the National Guard in Washington, D.C. has reduced petty property crimes, but has had little to no effect on violent crime, despite the high cost to taxpayers, according to a new analysis from the nonpartisan think tank Niskanen Center.
The study’s findings were published just weeks after federal officials announced that the number of troops in D.C. is set to double this summer to 5,000 as part of a “summer surge” of law enforcement ahead of events planned for America’s 250th birthday celebration.
Trump deployed the National Guard to D.C. last August, as part of the administration’s Safe and Beautiful Task Force, which he said was an effort to reduce crime and beautify the city. The task force includes hundreds of federal law enforcement — including immigration enforcement — working in conjunction with local police. It’s an approach that Trump previously said he wants to carry out in “many cities,” and already has in places like Memphis and New Orleans.
There are currently around 2,800 National Guard members deployed to D.C. from both the city itself and about a dozen other states, all of which have Republican governors. In contrast to other controversial National Guard deployments by Trump during his second term, the president has the authority over the Guard in D.C.
Guard members do not legally have the power to carry out arrests, but can detain individuals.
Troops — many of whom are armed — are largely carrying out what are called “high visibility patrols” to make their presence known around federal property and in residential areas, parks and city metro stations in an effort to free up D.C. police to redeploy to higher-crime areas. The report found that generally hasn’t happened.
Instead, researchers found that the deployment led to a 24% drop in “opportunistic” crimes — like property crimes and vehicle break-ins. But the presence of the Guard had no effect on violent crimes, including robberies, which were already on a downward trend before Trump came back into office.
“What the Guard brought was a massive, sudden shock from the visible presence of uniformed military personnel on the streets of Washington almost overnight,” researchers wrote, calling the deployment of the Guard a “blunt and expensive instrument.”
A recent assessment by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office found that it costs the federal government around $1.5 million per day for the current number of troops deployed to D.C.
“I think on balance the National Guard’s deployment is not a failure, there is success in what they’ve done. But I guess the point that we try to make is: compared to what?” says Richard Hahn, one of the authors of the study. “You could get the same or better outcomes, possibly much better outcomes, for much cheaper, if you just were very thoughtful about policing.”
In response to NPR’s request for comment about the study, White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said that it “should not be taken seriously.”
“The President’s Safe and Beautiful Task Force and National Guard presence have driven down crime, beautified the city, and improved quality of life for countless individuals,” Jackson said, without providing any evidence.
It’s unclear when the planned “summer surge” would end, or if the number of National Guard troops in the city would return to their current levels in the fall.
“Our message today is that we’re not done. We are not satisfied. We are not content with good. We are coming for perfection, and we won’t be done until we reclaim every last inch of ground on anyone seeking to do harm in our nation’s capital,” Assistant Attorney General Colin M. McDonald said when announcing the surge.
NPR reached out to task force officials behind the Guard deployment for clarity on when the surge might start or end, but did not receive an immediate response.
News
How Each House Member Voted on the Iran War Powers Resolution
Vote
Total
Democrats
Republicans
215
211
4
208
0
208
The House on Wednesday passed a measure to direct President Trump withdraw U.S. forces from Iran or win congressional approval to continue military operations there. The vote was the fourth of its kind in the chamber since the war began, the previous three having failed.
A vote on this measure was originally scheduled for last month but was pulled by House Republican leaders after it became clear they lacked the votes at the time to defeat it because of several members’ absences. Several Republicans were also absent on Wednesday, but party leaders were unable to delay the vote any longer.
Votes fell mostly along party lines, with the exception of four Republicans, who voted with Democrats to pass the measure. Representative Jared Golden, Democrat of Maine, who had previously voted with Republicans, flipped and voted with his party.
Republicans who voted against their party
The House vote came after four Senate Republicans last month broke from their party to advance a measure to assert the legislature’s role in authorizing the war. The Senate had rejected seven other similar measures, but Republicans in both chambers have expressed increased uneasiness with the conflict as it wears on.
Even if a war powers resolution passed in both the House and Senate, it would be subject to an all-but-certain veto by Mr. Trump, which would need a two-thirds majority in both chambers to override. Beyond that, the president and his senior aides have frequently dismissed efforts by Congress to rein in his war powers, saying they are unconstitutional.
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