2026-04-23T12:52:29.531Z / CNN
美国司法部将州许可医用大麻重新归类为危险性更低的药物
作者：汉娜·拉宾诺维茨、史蒂夫·孔托诺、艾丽西亚·华莱士
更新于1小时43分钟前
更新于2026年4月23日，美国东部时间上午10:18
发布于2026年4月23日，美国东部时间上午8:52
社会中的毒品、联邦机构、税收
美国代理司法部长托德·布兰奇周四签署一项命令，将州许可的医用大麻重新归类为危险性更低的药物，这一政策变更将改变数十年来阻碍该药物潜在药用价值研究的现状。
布兰奇的这项命令并未使娱乐用大麻在联邦层面合法化。相反，它将获得许可的医用大麻从《管制物质法案》第一类——即与海洛因、摇头丸同属限制最严格的毒品类别——调整至第三类，与氯胺酮、含可待因的泰诺林等部分处方药归为同一类别。
该命令同时为获得许可的医用大麻经销商提供税收减免，并放宽了对大麻药效研究的部分限制。
“这些举措将推动针对大麻安全性和有效性的更具针对性、更严谨的研究，扩大患者获得治疗的渠道，并让医生能够做出更知情的医疗决策，”布兰奇在X平台的社交媒体帖子中写道。
布兰奇表示，美国毒品 Enforcement 管理局（DEA）还将在法官主持下就更广泛的大麻重新分类问题举行行政听证会。
下调大麻分类等级的努力已在多届政府中被讨论和尝试，但均未能最终敲定规则。前总统乔·拜登在其任期的最后一年启动了新的尝试，但在离任前未能完成相关程序。
批评者将进程放缓归咎于时任DEA局长安妮·米尔格拉姆的消极拖延。该规则原定于拜登任期结束前安排行政听证会，但被DEA首席法官无限期暂停。
去年12月，唐纳德·特朗普总统在一项行政命令中要求司法部加快推进相关程序，落实拜登提出的规则变更。
但在随后的几个月里，公开进展寥寥，放松管制的倡导者们愈发沮丧。
特朗普本人上周似乎也对拖延表示不满，在椭圆形办公室的一场活动中对大麻合法化支持者、播客主持人乔·罗根表示，“他们一直在拖延我的进程。”
消息人士告诉CNN，白宫和司法部也面临着大麻行业越来越大的压力，要求其完成分类等级调整。
据两位熟悉讨论的消息人士透露，在敲定推进计划时，部门内部分人曾希望在4月20日——大麻爱好者的庆祝日——公布相关举措，但被告知此举不合时宜。
如今，这项重新焕发生机的努力可能很快会遭到批评者的法律挑战，他们认为下调分类等级可能会助长有害毒品的娱乐性使用。
反对大麻合法化的倡导组织“明智禁毒途径”在一份声明中表示，将“立即采取法律行动”反对该命令。
“今天的决定唯一推进的是一个以成瘾牟利的行业的利益——如果总统不按照法律要求使用食品药品监督管理局，那他为什么不直接废除这个机构，”声明中写道。
尽管如此，放松大麻管制在全美范围内仍广受欢迎。皮尤研究中心2024年的一项调查显示，近六成美国人支持娱乐用大麻合法化。
根据美国全国州议会会议的数据，目前已有24个州、两个地区和华盛顿特区将成人娱乐用大麻合法化，40个州、三个地区和华盛顿特区允许医用大麻产品的使用。自2014年科罗拉多州完成首笔成人用大麻销售以来，大麻产业已发展为规模达数十亿美元的产业，吸引了酒精、农业、制药和烟草等多个行业的跨国公司关注。
目前尚不清楚周三的重新分类指令将如何影响同时持有娱乐用和医用大麻许可证的州合法大麻企业。
大麻企业Trulieve的首席执行官金·里弗斯感谢特朗普和布兰奇“兑现”了重新分类大麻的承诺。
“利用条约途径和规则制定程序的双重方式确保了医用大麻重新分类能够迅速且彻底地完成，这清晰地表明了总统兑现其竞选承诺的决心，”她说道。
经济影响
丹佛市大麻律师事务所Vicente LLP的创始合伙人布莱恩·文森特表示，联邦政府承认大麻的医用价值不仅具有重要象征意义，还可能向目前正在审议大麻立法的州议员发出许可信号。
他表示，重新分类也将带来实际影响，其中最显著的一点之一是大麻企业可能不再受《国内税收法典》第280E条的约束。该条款是上世纪80年代初出台的一项税收规定，禁止从事第一类或第二类管制物质“贩运”的企业扣除普通商业开支或申请税收抵免。
“我们谈论的是数十亿美元的新经济活动、数万个新增就业岗位，或是为多年来承受沉重税收负担的行业注入强劲动力，”文森特说，“这将彻底改变许多州合法大麻企业的命运。”
根据惠特尼经济咨询公司本月早些时候发布的一份分析报告，自2018年以来，大麻企业已累计缴纳约150亿美元的额外280E相关税款。这家位于俄勒冈州波特兰的大麻与大麻咨询及经济研究公司表示，受第280E条约束，部分大麻企业的实际税率高达70%以上。
“免除这一税收负担，将对这些企业的招聘能力、支付更高工资的能力以及盈利能力产生显著的积极影响，”文森特说，“在当前略显艰难的经济环境下，这对拥有这类企业的各州而言可能是一场真正的胜利。”
文森特表示，美国国税局可能需要就大麻被归入第三类一事发布相关指导细则。
重新分类的另一项实际影响将是加快大麻医学研究的步伐，他说。
“多年来，在科罗拉多州和全美各地，我都在与有意开展研究的大学和医院交流，他们担心会违反联邦非法药物规定，进而失去联邦资助，”他说，“虽然这不会改变大麻的合法性，但将其归入第三类将有助于加快研究进程，并无疑会减轻与这种药物相关的部分污名。”
他表示，预计不会发生变化的是各州涉及娱乐用和医用大麻的法律与监管规定。
大麻重新分类不会解决长期存在的联邦与州之间的冲突：根据联邦法律，用于娱乐目的的大麻种植、制造、销售和持有仍然属于非法行为，可能会面临执法和起诉。
目前，各州的合法医用大麻企业确实通过拨款立法获得了部分联邦保护，该立法限制司法部干预这些州级医用大麻项目。
本文已更新补充更多信息。
By
Hannah Rabinowitz
,
Steve Contorno
,
Alicia Wallace
Updated 1 hr 43 min ago
Updated Apr 23, 2026, 10:18 AM ET
PUBLISHED Apr 23, 2026, 8:52 AM ET
Drugs in society Federal agencies Taxes
A marijuana plant in San Anselmo, California, on August 11, 2025.
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images/File
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche signed an order Thursday reclassifying state-licensed medical marijuana as a less dangerous drug, changing a policy that has for decades made the drug’s potential medicinal benefits more difficult to research.
The order from Blanche does not make recreational use legal under federal law. Instead, it moves licensed medical marijuana from Schedule I — which are the most restricted drugs such as heroin and ecstasy — to Schedule III, the same category as some prescription medicines like ketamine and Tylenol with codeine.
It also gives a tax break to licensed medical marijuana dealers and eases some restrictions on researching its effects.
“These actions will enable more targeted, rigorous research into marijuana’s safety and efficacy, expanding patients’ access to treatments and empowering doctors to make better-informed healthcare decisions,” Blanche wrote in a social media post on X.
The Drug Enforcement Administration will also hold administrative hearings before a judge on reclassifying marijuana more broadly, Blanche said.
The effort to downgrade marijuana’s classification has been discussed and attempted by several administrations, but none were successful in finalizing a rule. Former President Joe Biden initiated a new attempt in the last year of his presidency, but it wasn’t completed before he left office.
Critics blamed reluctancy from then-DEA Administrator Anne Milgram for slow-walking the process. The rule had been similarly scheduled for administrative hearings before the end of Biden’s term but was put on pause indefinitely by the DEA’s top judge.
In an executive order last December, President Donald Trump ordered the Justice Department to expedite the process and push through Biden’s proposed rule change.
But there was little public movement in the proceeding months, and advocates of eased regulations grew frustrated.
Trump himself appeared to express frustration about the delay over the weekend, telling podcaster Joe Rogan, a supporter of rescheduling marijuana, at an Oval Office event that “they’re slow-walking me.”
Sources told CNN that in the White House and Justice Department have also faced increasing pressure from the cannabis industry to get the scheduling change over the line.
As a plan to move forward was being finalized, some in the department hoped to publicize its efforts on April 20 — a day of celebration for marijuana enthusiasts — but were told that it would be unseemly, two sources familiar with the discussions said.
Now, the reinvigorated effort is likely to face swift legal challenges from critics who say that the downgrade could encourage recreational use of a harmful drug.
Smart Approaches to Marijuana, an advocacy organization that opposes marijuana legalization, said in a statement that it will be “taking legal action immediately” against the order.
“The only thing today’s decision advances are the interests of an addiction-for-profit industry—and if the president isn’t going to use the Food and Drug Administration as the law requires, why doesn’t he simply abolish it,” the statement said.
Still, loosening restrictions around marijuana is broadly popular. A 2024 Pew Research Center survey found nearly six in 10 Americans support the legalization of recreational cannabis.
Twenty-four states, two territories and Washington, DC, have legalized cannabis for adult recreational use, and 40 states, three territories and DC allow medical use of cannabis products, according to data from the National Conference of State Legislatures. Since the first adult-use cannabis sale took place in 2014 in Colorado, cannabis has blossomed into a multibillion-dollar industry that has attracted the attention of multinational companies across sectors such as alcohol, agriculture, pharmaceutical and tobacco.
It remains unclear how Wednesday’s rescheduling directive could affect state-legal cannabis businesses that have both recreational and medical licenses.
Kim Rivers, the CEO of the marijuana company Trulieve, thanked both Trump and Blanche for “delivering” on their promise to reclassify marijuana.
“The dual approach of utilizing the treaty pathway and the rulemaking process ensures rescheduling medical marijuana happens quickly and completely and is an unequivocal statement of the President’s commitment to make good on his campaign promise,” she said.
Economic impacts
The federal government acknowledging marijuana’s medical value is not only symbolically powerful but also could serve as a permissive signal to state-level lawmakers currently weighing cannabis legislation, said Brian Vicente, a founding partner of Vicente LLP, a Denver-based cannabis law firm.
A rescheduling would carry practical implications as well, he said, noting one of the most significant being that cannabis businesses might no longer be subject to Internal Revenue Code Section 280E, an early 1980s tax provision that prohibits businesses engaged in the “trafficking” of Schedule I or II substances from deducting ordinary business expenses or claiming tax credits.
“We’re talking about billions of dollars in new economic activity, tens of thousands of new jobs or just really a wind in the sail for this industry that’s really paid a very heavy tax burden for years,” Vicente said. “That would be life-changing for many, many state-legal cannabis businesses.”
Since 2018, cannabis businesses have paid an estimated $15 billion in excess 280E-related taxes, according to an analysis released earlier this month by Whitney Economics. Subject to 280E, some cannabis businesses have an effective tax rate of 70% or more, according to the Portland, Oregon-based cannabis and hemp consulting and economic research firm.
“By removing this tax burden, you’re going to have a substantial positive impact on these businesses, their ability to hire, their ability to pay higher wages, their profitability,” Vicente said. “In somewhat of a challenging economy, this could be a real win for those states that have these businesses.”
The Internal Revenue Service would likely have to issue guidance on moving marijuana to Schedule III, Vicente said.
Another real-world implication of rescheduling would be the acceleration of medical research on cannabis, he said.
“For years in Colorado and across the country, I’ve talked to universities and hospitals that want to allow research, but they’re afraid of federal illegality and losing federal funds,” he said. “While this would not change the legality of cannabis, it would move it to Schedule III, which would help fast-track research and certainly reduce some of the stigma attached to this medicine.”
What is not expected to change, he said, will be the state-level laws and regulations involving recreational and medical cannabis.
Rescheduling marijuana will not solve the longstanding federal-state conflict: The cultivation, manufacture, sale and possession of marijuana for recreational use would remain illegal under federal law and potentially subject to enforcement and prosecution.
States’ legal medical marijuana businesses do currently have some federal protections in place via appropriations legislation that restricts the Justice Department from interfering in these programs.
This story has been updated with additional information.