Detroit Free Press
At first glance, President Donald Trump’s Dec. 18 executive order reclassifying cannabis as a Schedule III substance might seem like a win for medical cannabis. But for thousands of patients and researchers, this policy gesture changes little.
Since 1970, cannabis has been classified as Schedule I — the same federal category as heroin and LSD — meaning it is considered to have no “accepted medical use” and a high potential for abuse. This designation has created enormous barriers for scientists: controlled studies are difficult to conduct, funding is scarce and the supply of federally approved cannabis is extremely limited.
While reclassification may ease some bureaucratic hurdles and funnel revenue to state-licensed cannabis businesses, cannabis will remain illegal under federal law — and reclassification alone does not address the real problem. The United States remains decades behind in understanding how cannabis affects health.
We lack data on marijuana use
Today, millions of Americans use medical cannabis for pain, anxiety, posttraumatic stress disorder, sleep problems or other conditions. Yet despite its popularity, the evidence base is thin. Most studies are small, short-term, and inconsistent. We lack rigorous data on optimal dosing, product composition, long-term effects, and safety in vulnerable populations such as adolescents, older adults and individuals with psychiatric or neurological conditions. Clinicians rely on anecdotal reports, while patients experiment in trial-and-error fashion.
This year has been particularly alarming for U.S. science. The same administration moving to reclassify cannabis also proposed cutting the NIH budget by about 40% — a direct attack on research that improves lives and on the institutions that have made the United States the global leader in biomedical research.
Years of chronic underfunding, compounded by inflation and persistent assaults on science and the scientific process, have left American research struggling to keep pace with the rest of the world, as countries like China double down on research and innovation.
Meanwhile, patients are left to manage their own medical treatment — or risk legal repercussions in states without medical cannabis programs — despite our limited understanding of the risks, including cannabis use disorder, preventable emergency department visits from accidents or poisonings and rare syndromes such as hyperemesis (cyclical vomiting). Symbolic policy gestures cannot make up for decades of neglect.
What we truly need is sustained federal investment in rigorous medical cannabis research and broader biomedical science.
Funding should support large-scale, multi-site studies that examine effects across diverse populations, track long-term outcomes, and clarify the risks and benefits of different formulations and dosages. Researchers also need access to high-quality, standardized cannabis products to ensure study results are reliable and reproducible. Only with this infrastructure can science inform policy and clinical practice.
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We need investment, not headlines
Symbolic reclassifications make headlines, but symbolism is not a substitute for evidence. Policymakers touting these gestures must also commit to building the research ecosystem — because patients, doctors and the public deserve more than guesswork. The promise of medical cannabis cannot be realized without science.
It’s time to move beyond political posturing and long-debunked myths. To unlock the true potential of cannabis — and to preserve U.S. leadership in biomedical research — we need robust science, sustained funding and laws that enable discovery rather than block it. Anything less is merely a band-aid on a decades-long research deficit.
Dr. Hilary Marusak is a developmental neuroscientist and tenured Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurosciences at Wayne State University School of Medicine. She directs the Division of Cannabinoids in Neurodevelopment, which advances understanding of cannabis, cannabinoids, and the endocannabinoid system through rigorous research on their effects on brain development and mental health.
Sean Hocking
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