The Trump administration moved on Thursday to reclassify state-licensed medical marijuana as a less-dangerous drug, a change signed by Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche that could ease tax burdens and business rules for the licensed cannabis industry. It does not legalize marijuana for medical or recreational use, and it does not change current penalties for possessing or selling it.
The order shifts licensed medical marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule III. Schedule I is reserved for drugs with no accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse, while Schedule III is regulated less strictly. For licensed medical marijuana operators and cannabis researchers, that means a likely major tax break and fewer barriers to ordinary business operations.
The step is being described as a historic policy shift that both Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden had considered, but it stops well short of the full rewrite advocates have long wanted. It also leaves untouched people already serving federal cannabis-related sentences, and virtually no one imprisoned at the federal level is there solely for marijuana possession.
Many federal prisoners with marijuana cases are serving time for large-scale possession, trafficking offenses or both. Hector Ruben McGurk has been serving life without the possibility of parole since 2007 after being sentenced for transporting thousands of pounds of marijuana and money laundering. He is imprisoned in Beaumont, Texas, more than 800 miles, or 1,290 kilometers, from his son’s home in El Paso.
For McGurk’s family, the change reads as progress that stops at the prison gate. Ferna Anguiano said, “His release date is death,” and added, “He deserves a second chance.” She also said, “Yes, it was a poor decision he did in his lifetime. He was younger. But he is not a bad person. I think it’s fair to say.” Jason Ortiz put it more bluntly: “While this is a victory, the fight is far from over,” he said.
The order answers one question and leaves another hanging: Blanche has now helped move medical marijuana into a less restrictive federal category, but the people serving long marijuana sentences will not feel the effect. That gap is likely to keep pressure on Congress and the White House as advocates push for broader relief beyond the industry itself.
