Three States Are Trying to Block Cannabis Rescheduling. Here's Why That's Weirder Than It Sounds.
Three States Are Trying to Block Cannabis Rescheduling. Here's Why That's Weirder Than It Sounds. You'd expect pushback on federal cannabis progress to come from the usual places. Religious coalitions. Law enforcement lobbies. Career prohibitionists who've been fighting this since the Reagan administration. You probably wouldn't expect it to come from the attorneys general of states that already have medical cannabis programs. And yet here we are. What Just Happened On April 23, 2026, Acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche signed a two-phase order that moved cannabis rescheduling forward in a way nobody had quite anticipated. Phase one: state-licensed medical cannabis and FDA-approved cannabis products were immediately reclassified from Schedule I — where they've sat alongside heroin for decades — to Schedule III of the Controlled Substances Act. Effective immediately. No waiting period. Phase two: a new expedited administrative hearing was ordered ...