Pot Reclassified, Psychedelics Fast-Tracked
- 15 hours ago
- 2 min read
Pot Reclassified, Psychedelics Fast-Tracked
M.A. Dworkin
Washington, D.C. - The Justice Department has reclassified/rescheduled FDA-approved marijuana products and products containing marijuana (subject to a qualifying State-issued License) to Schedule III from its previous Schedule I, making marijuana no longer considered to have “No currently acceptable medical use.”
The rescheduling permits prescriptions for FDA-approved products and state-licensed medical cannabis. It eases the barriers for medical research and scientific studies, including reduced bureaucratic hurdles, while still maintaining strict federal controls.
Tax code 280E is removed, allowing companies to deduct ordinary business expenses. The action expands access to approved therapies and supports state-regulated medical marijuana programs.
Marijuana is still not legalized at the federal level for recreational use, but it is now classified alongside drugs with lower abuse potential, such as ketamine, testosterone, and Tylenol with codeine.
While a final order was issued on April 22, 2026, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) will hold hearings on broader rescheduling in June 2026, with an intended conclusion by July 15, 2026.
Psychedelics Fast-tracked
Days after President Trump signed an Executive Order (EO) that directed the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) to give national priority vouchers to psychedelic drugs that have the “breakthrough therapy” tag, potentially cutting the review time to one to two months from the usual six to ten months. The USFDA moved to speed up the development of new treatments for serious mental illness by awarding the national priority vouchers to three companies, Compass Pathways, Usona Institute and Transcend Therapeutics.
Compass is working on a synthetic form of psilocybin for treatment resistant depression, while the other two companies are working on psilocybin for major depressive disorder, and methylone for post-traumatic stress disorder.
Psychedelic treatments work primarily by activating proteins on the surface of nerve cells that regulate the brain’s ability to reorganize, form new connections and repair damaged circuits. Risks of psychedelic-assisted therapy include acute anxiety, panic, and confusion during administration of the medicine.
Psilocybin is listed as a Schedule I drug, meaning it currently has no accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse. But psilocybin has been studied more extensively than other psychedelic drugs, with research over the past decade showing it can significantly reduce symptoms of depression.
Mental illness remains widespread, affecting 23.4% of U.S. adults in 2024, and 17.6% of veterans in 2023.
