BILLINGS — President Donald Trump's acting attorney general on Thursday signed an order reclassifying state-licensed medical marijuana as a less-dangerous drug, a major policy shift long sought by advocates who said cannabis should never have been treated like heroin by the federal government.
The order signed by Todd Blanche does not legalize marijuana for medical or recreational use under U.S. law. But it does change the way it's regulated, shifting licensed medical marijuana from Schedule I — reserved for drugs without medical use and with high potential for abuse — to the less strictly regulated Schedule III. It also gives licensed medical marijuana operators a major tax break and eases some barriers to researching cannabis.
The decision to reschedule medical cannabis could bring changes for medical patients and state-regulated marijuana businesses.
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Kari Boiter, a member of the American Council of Cannabis Medicine's Government Affairs Committee, said a coalition has been working on federal cannabis reform for over 15 years.
"This is the swiftest we've seen any sort of movement on the federal level since I've been in this for about 17 years," Boiter said.
She calls the change a mixed bag, noting it is not full legalization and does not completely reschedule cannabis for anything other than medical purposes.
However, she said it provides reassurance for the state-regulated industry through expedited Drug Enforcement Administration registration pathways.
Boiter says she has benefited from cannabis as medicine for the past two decades. For patients like herself, the rescheduling could open the door for health insurance coverage that pays for the drug.
"That opens up a new avenue for us to be able to access products maybe we couldn't afford before or certainly to be able to not have to make a decision between our medicine and our power bill, our medicine and the food on the table," Boiter said.
But that’s not the only advantage.
“It really allows for research, so that’s a big thing too,” she says.
Montana’s cannabis industry had a record year in 2025 with more than $327 million in sales, including about $38 million from medical marijuana.
“It lifts the really disproportionate on these businesses that other industries don’t have to pay,” Boiter says.
More is expected to come out on this change and other possible changes when the DEA gives stakeholders a chance to weigh in during a hearing scheduled for late June.
“This isn’t the end all be all by any means. This is just one more step in an industry that has been built one baby step at time,” Boiter says.
