Aug. 9 (UPI) — President Donald Trump might hasten the pace of change regarding marijuana in the eyes of the federal government and the Drug Enforcement Administration.
Trump suggested he is considering making changes to federal regulations regarding marijuana while hosting a fundraiser at his golf club in Bedminster, N.J., on Aug. 1, according to CNN and The Wall Street Journal.
Many of those who attended the $1 million-a-plate affair are invested in legal marijuana enterprises and support legalization efforts at the federal level and discussed possible changes in federal marijuana laws.
Trump listened to their concerns of those who want the president to continue the Biden administration’s effort to reclassify marijuana as a Class III substance with known medical benefits.
Its current classification under the Controlled Substances Act places marijuana alongside potentially deadly and highly addictive drugs, including heroin and LSD.
A White House official affirmed the president is considering changing the federal government’s classification of marijuana as a Schedule I drug, which is reserved for drugs with no known medical use and that have a high potential for abuse.
“The only interest guiding the president’s policy decision is what is in the best interest of the American people,” White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson told CNN in a prepared statement.
Although marijuana remains a Class I drug and is outlawed by federal law, it’s legal on some level in the vast majority of U.S. states.
Forty states, the District of Columbia and four U.S. territories have medical marijuana laws that enable adults to obtain prescriptions for cannabis from medical doctors,
Among those states, 24 have legalized recreational use of marijuana, along with the nation’s capital.
Voters in Trump’s home state of Florida on Nov. 5 voted down a ballot initiative that would have legalized the recreational use of marijuana.
Trump had expressed his support for the ballot initiative, though.
During the president’s first administration, the 2018 Farm Bill removed hemp-derived cannabis products from the DEA’s Class I schedule, which enabled the development of CBD-based medicines.
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