SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
The Trump administration is easing federal restrictions on medical marijuana. Today, the acting attorney general issued a memo saying he's moving these cannabis products out of the most restrictive category known as Schedule I, which is reserved for drugs with no accepted medical use. NPR health correspondent Will Stone joined us now to discuss. Hey, Will.
WILL STONE, BYLINE: Hey there.
DETROW: So cannabis had been listed alongside drugs like heroin and LSD as Schedule I for a long time. What's the status of it now?
STONE: Well, it will become a Schedule III drug, and that's reserved for substances that are considered to have moderate to low potential for dependence. For example, other drugs in that category are anabolic steroids and ketamine. To be clear, this does not apply to all cannabis. The memo states it's for FDA-approved drugs and marijuana products that qualify under state medical marijuana programs.
DETROW: OK. This sounds like a big deal, but I'm curious what the real-world impact is going to be.
STONE: Well, it's certainly historic. There are still lots of questions about the details, like, what cannabis products are we even talking about? What's the scope? Many states have medical and recreational programs. The products being sold aren't necessarily different, though. There's also still a broader tension here with federal law, which Doug Berman pointed out. He's a professor at the Ohio State University Moritz College of Law and an expert in this area.
DOUG BERMAN: It's not clear that that actually means all of these dispensaries, whether medical or recreational, in all these states can now say, whoo-hoo. I'm now completely federally legal. All of those sales are still illegal in some sense. I can't, on my own, decide to set up a pharmacy and buy a whole bunch of Schedule III drugs and then resell them to people.
STONE: At the same time, these cannabis businesses have operated under federal prohibition for many years. And Berman says clearly, the Trump administration is setting a new tone. It's signaling that it wants to make at least medical marijuana more of an aboveboard, regulated industry.
DETROW: And I mean, even with this murky legal situation, millions of people have been walking into stores and buying cannabis products. So I'm curious, practically speaking, what are the biggest effects here?
STONE: More than anything, this is a financial boon for the cannabis industry. Under federal rules, they have not been able to deduct ordinary business expenses because they're selling a Schedule I drug. I spoke to Adam Rosenberg about this. He's chairman of the board for the National Cannabis Industry Association.
ADAM ROSENBERG: It costs cannabis operators billions of dollars each year in excess taxes. Beyond that, it has an impact on businesses' ability to compete with the illicit market.
STONE: This move to Schedule III changes that. Businesses will be able to deduct these expenses, and they may even be able to do that retroactively.
DETROW: Let's go back to the initial medical framing of this move. I know you cover cannabis research and the efforts to better understand the health risks, health benefits. Does this make a difference there?
STONE: It does, to some extent. Studying cannabis is very tough with all the regulations, and one obstacle is that it's hard to get a license to study Schedule I drugs. Not many are given out. That does get easier with a Schedule III drug. Here's Amie Goodin. She's at the University of Florida and with the Consortium for Medical Marijuana Clinical Outcomes research.
AMIE GOODIN: Many more different types of researchers, scientists and physician scientists would be eligible to get a license. So that process becomes a lot more navigable for scientists.
STONE: That said, there are still going to be challenges. Goodin says this does not mean she can walk into a state dispensary and use that cannabis for a study. There are rules about where scientists can source the drug.
DETROW: That is NPR's Will Stone. Will, thanks so much.
STONE: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.