On April 23, 2026, the Trump administration moved medical marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule III — the biggest federal cannabis policy shift in decades. It was historic. It was also incomplete. Tens of thousands of Americans remain incarcerated for cannabis offenses that are now legal in most of the country. Advocates say rescheduling without clemency and full descheduling is a half measure.
Within hours of Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche signing the rescheduling order, criminal justice and cannabis policy organizations made the same point: the move does nothing for people already behind bars. For the Last Prisoner Project, a nonpartisan nonprofit dedicated to cannabis justice reform, the announcement was both a milestone and a missed opportunity.
“While President Trump’s decision to reschedule state legal cannabis is a historic step forward, it does nothing for the tens of thousands of Americans still locked behind bars for actions that are now legal in most of the country. Thankfully, President Trump has demonstrated he is willing to act boldly to correct outdated policies. By pairing rescheduling with clemency for people incarcerated for cannabis, he can cement his legacy as the leader who has done more for cannabis justice than any other president in American history.”
Jason Ortiz, Director of Strategic Initiatives, Last Prisoner Project
The framing is deliberate. Ortiz is not criticizing the rescheduling — he is asking Trump to go further, and doing so in terms the administration might find appealing: legacy, boldness, historic action. It is an ask, not an attack.
What rescheduling does not do
The Schedule III order is explicit on this point. It does not decriminalize cannabis. It does not expunge records. It does not affect the sentences of people currently incarcerated for cannabis offenses. Those outcomes require separate legislative or executive action — either an act of Congress or a presidential clemency order.
NORML’s Deputy Director put the gap in historical context. “It wasn’t long ago that federal officials were denying that cannabis possessed any legitimate medical utility, threatening to seize doctors’ medical licenses for discussing medical cannabis with their patients, and shutting down state-licensed marijuana dispensaries,” he said, welcoming the rescheduling while noting its limits. “While today’s move is a historic step forward, it still falls well short of the comprehensive changes necessary to bring federal marijuana policy into the 21st century.”
NORML’s position is that cannabis must ultimately be removed from the Controlled Substances Act entirely — not rescheduled within it. Only full descheduling, the organization argues, would give states explicit authority to regulate cannabis the way they regulate alcohol, and resolve the fundamental conflict between federal and state law that affects nearly half the country.
What would clemency actually look like?
Presidential clemency for cannabis convictions is not unprecedented. President Biden issued pardons for federal simple possession convictions in 2022, though the number of people directly released was limited because few people are incarcerated at the federal level solely for possession. The larger population — people serving sentences for distribution, cultivation or other cannabis offenses — would require a broader and more politically complex clemency action.
Last Prisoner Project has documented cases of individuals serving decades-long sentences for cannabis offenses that would be entirely legal under current state law. For those individuals, Schedule III changes nothing.
The broader critique: why advocates want more than Schedule III
The Drug Policy Alliance, one of the country’s most prominent drug policy reform organizations, went further than most in its response — calling the administration’s action inadequate and urging Congress to remove marijuana from the Controlled Substances Act entirely.
“After years of delays and half-measures, Americans deserve marijuana reform that fully ends and addresses the harms of criminalization, which includes needless arrests, incarceration, and lasting barriers to jobs, housing, and employment. Partial rescheduling and a prolonged administrative process that may result in marijuana being moved to Schedule III means those harms remain in place.”
Cat Packer, Director of Drug Markets and Legal Regulation, Drug Policy Alliance
DPA noted that federal marijuana enforcement costs the government an estimated $3 billion annually, while states with legal markets have generated nearly $25 billion in combined tax revenue since 2014. The organization also flagged a concern that often gets lost in the business-focused coverage of rescheduling: the Trump administration has used federal marijuana laws as a basis for immigration enforcement and local crackdowns — a dynamic that Schedule III does not address.
For Amber Senter, Executive Director of Supernova Women, the equity stakes are personal and communal.
“While it may help with tax relief for licensed operators, it would continue the criminalization and stigma that have devastated Black and Brown communities for decades. Schedule III would keep barriers in place for research, patient access, and justice reform. True progress is full descheduling. Only descheduling will allow states to regulate cannabis without federal interference, open banking and capital opportunities for small businesses, and begin to repair the harm caused by the war on drugs. Anything short of descheduling is a half-measure that continues to perpetuate inequity and injustice.”
Amber Senter, Executive Director, Supernova Women
Damian Fagon, a cannabis and equity expert at the Parabola Center for Law and Policy, raised a concern that cuts directly to the industry’s future: without enforceable anti-monopoly protections, 280E relief and expanded financial access could accelerate consolidation rather than support small operators and community-rooted businesses.
“Expanding financial access without enforceable competitive safeguards would accelerate consolidation and reinforce incumbent market power. Protecting small businesses, workers, and locally rooted ownership requires ending federal prohibition and establishing automatic expungement, enforceable anti-monopoly protections, and binding community reinvestment.”
Damian Fagon, Cannabis and Equity Expert, Parabola Center for Law and Policy
It is a warning worth taking seriously. The 280E relief that rescheduling delivers is real — and disproportionately valuable to the largest, best-capitalized operators. Without structural protections, the companies most likely to benefit are the ones that least need it.
The limits of the order
Betty Aldworth, Co-Executive Director of MAPS and Chair of the Marijuana Policy Project, acknowledged the significance of the rescheduling while cataloguing what it leaves untouched. The order does not resolve the state/federal conflict for adult-use operators. It does not protect people from cannabis-related consequences in housing, immigration, employment or family law. It does not create a pathway for patients to access cannabis through insurance coverage.
“What we are seeing now is a familiar pattern: momentum framed as reform, without the structural change required to make that reform meaningful in people’s lives.”
Betty Aldworth, Co-Executive Director, MAPS; Chair, Marijuana Policy Project
Aldworth’s framing cuts to the core of the critique: rescheduling generates headlines without delivering the stability, safety or equity that communities most affected by prohibition actually need. Progress that stops short of full reform, she argues, is postponement dressed as transformation.
Rescheduling is movement. It is not freedom.
High Times, December 2025
High Times has maintained this position since before today’s announcement. Schedule III is a meaningful shift for the industry, particularly on taxes and research. It is not the end of prohibition. It does not repair the damage done by decades of enforcement. And it does not free a single person still behind bars for cannabis. The fight for full descheduling, legalization and justice continues.
Read our full rescheduling coverage: Cannabis Has Been Rescheduled to Schedule III. Don’t Call It Legalization. | Marijuana Reclassification Explained | Cannabis Rescheduling Questions Answered
