President Trump’s executive order directing the Attorney General to move marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule III under the Controlled Substances Act has set off a cascade of legislative activity at the state level, with some jurisdictions moving to reduce penalties for drug offenses while others seek to increase them — underscoring the fractured state of American drug policy.
What Federal Rescheduling Would — and Wouldn’t — Change
The executive order, issued in December 2025, directs the Attorney General to “take all necessary steps to expeditiously” complete the reclassification that the Department of Justice and Drug Enforcement Administration first proposed in May 2024. Moving marijuana to Schedule III would acknowledge that the substance has accepted medical uses and a lower potential for abuse than Schedule I drugs like heroin and LSD.
However, the practical impact on criminal penalties would be limited. The Congressional Research Service has noted that quantity-based mandatory minimum sentences specific to marijuana would remain unchanged under rescheduling. Federal trafficking penalties for large quantities of marijuana — which can carry mandatory minimums of five or ten years — are keyed to the substance itself, not its schedule classification.
What rescheduling would change is the default penalty structure for offenses not already covered by marijuana-specific provisions. Simple possession of a Schedule III substance, for example, carries lower penalties than possession of a Schedule I substance. The move could also affect collateral consequences for individuals with marijuana convictions, including barriers to housing, employment, and federal student aid.
States Move in Both Directions
At the state level, the legislative picture is mixed. Florida’s SB 1398 would legalize and regulate cannabis for adults 21 and older, with provisions for sentence reductions and expungements for conduct that would become legal. Pennsylvania’s SB 75 and HB 758 would reduce possession of up to 30 grams of marijuana to a summary offense carrying a fine of up to $25 — effectively decriminalizing small-quantity possession.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Sentencing Commission identified drug trafficking penalties as a policy priority for the amendment cycle ending May 1, 2026, with particular focus on fentanyl-related offenses. The Commission’s 2026 Drug Offenses Data Briefing showed that drug trafficking cases continue to constitute the largest single category of federal criminal cases, with fentanyl overtaking methamphetamine as the most commonly charged substance.
The Expungement Gap
Even as marijuana laws liberalize, advocates have pointed to a persistent gap between legalization and relief for people previously convicted under stricter regimes. An estimated 40,000 people remain in state and federal prisons for marijuana offenses, according to the Last Prisoner Project. Millions more carry convictions on their records that affect employment, housing, and custody proceedings.
Automatic expungement provisions, which would clear eligible marijuana convictions without requiring individuals to petition courts, have been included in some state legalization bills but remain the exception. Criminal justice reform advocates argue that without retroactive relief, rescheduling offers a symbolic change that does little for those who bore the brunt of decades of criminalization — a burden that has fallen disproportionately on Black and Latino communities.
The Sentencing Commission’s next public hearing on proposed amendments is scheduled for March 2026.
For coverage of drug offenses and incarceration, see our State Prisons section.
