Dec 19 On December 18, 2025, President Donald Trump signed an executive order (the “Order”) directing the federal government to move cannabis from Schedule I to Schedule III under the federal Controlled Substances Act (“CSA”). The White House frames the Order as a research-forward initiative intended to better inform patients and physicians by reducing barriers […]
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Wiz Khalifa has been sentenced to nine months in prison in Romania for lighting up a joint on stage during a music festival. A small amount of cannabis in a country with little tolerance, a crowd packed with young fans (something judges said worsened the offense), and a criminal ruling that crossed borders.
According to the BBC, the sentence was handed down by a Romanian appeals court, which overturned an earlier fine and opted for a custodial sentence, even though the artist is not currently in the country.
The incident itself isn’t new. It happened in July 2024 at the Beach, Please! festival in the coastal city of Costinești. After the show, the rapper was briefly detained by police and later charged with drug possession for personal use.
In a written ruling, judges from the Constanța Court of Appeal said the punishment wasn’t based solely on possession, but on the public message they believe Khalifa sent. According to the court, the act amounted to “a message normalizing illegal behavior” and encouraged “drug use among young people.”
They also described the gesture as an “ostentatious act,” stressing that Khalifa performed “on the stage of a music festival very popular with young people” and consumed cannabis in front of “a large audience, predominantly made up of young attendees.”
Authorities stated that the artist had more than 18 grams (roughly 0.6 ounces) of cannabis in his possession and consumed an additional amount during the performance.
A day after the incident, Wiz Khalifa took to X to defuse the situation, promising he’d be back, just without the big ass joint next time:
Last nights show was amazing. I didn’t mean any disrespect to the country of Romania by lighting up on stage. They were very respectful and let me go. I’ll be back soon. But without a big ass joint next time
— Wiz Khalifa (@wizkhalifa) July 14, 2024
Since then, the rapper has continued his usual schedule, appearing at shows across the United States and streaming from home on Twitch.
The sentence was issued in absentia, and all signs suggest it won’t be enforced in practice, at least as long as he doesn’t return to the country. Romanian criminologist Vlad Zaha said extradition is highly unlikely and described the ruling as “unusually harsh.” As he explained, Romania has little legal or political leverage to compel the U.S. to hand over the artist to serve the sentence.
The case highlights a growing and increasingly visible tension: global artists operating under cultural codes that don’t always align with local legal frameworks. Wiz Khalifa isn’t just known for hits like See You Again or Young or Wild & Free, he’s also built a public identity deeply tied to cannabis, including founding his own brand back in 2016.
<p>The post Wiz Khalifa Sentenced to 9 Months for Lighting a ‘Big Ass Joint’ on Stage in Romania first appeared on High Times.</p>
Marijuana will be federally rescheduled under an executive order signed by President Donald Trump on Thursday.
The directive also aims to address federal hemp laws to promote access to full-spectrum CBD that could be covered under federal health insurance plans.
Months after Trump said a decision on the cannabis reform proposal was imminent, the president issued the directive for agencies to begin moving forward with the plan to transfer cannabis from Schedule I to Schedule III of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA).
“We have people begging for me to do this, people that are in great pain for decades,” Trump said. “This action has been requested by American patients suffering from extreme pain, incurable diseases, aggressive cancers, seizure disorders, neurological problems, and more—including numerous veterans with service-related injuries and older Americans who live with chronic medical problems that severely degrade their quality of life.”
This marks one of the most significant developments in federal marijuana policy since its prohibition a half a century ago, with a Schedule III reclassification recognizing that marijuana has medical value and a lower abuse potential compared to other Schedule I drugs like heroin.
Rescheduling will not federally legalize cannabis. However, the policy change will enable state-licensed marijuana businesses to claim federal tax deductions that they’ve been previously denied under an Internal Revenue Service (IRS) code known as Section 280E. It will also remove certain research barriers applied to Schedule I drugs.
The change may also spur additional states to modernize their own policies on cannabis, as some lawmakers have cited the federal government’s restrictive classification of marijuana as a reason they have been uncomfortable with enacting legalization or at least allowing medical use.
In addition to directing the attorney general to expedite the completion of the process of rescheduling marijuana to Schedule III of the CSA, the executive order also includes a novel proposal to allow Medicare recipients to access non-intoxicating CBD that’d be covered under the federal health care plan.
That is a policy Trump seemed to endorse over the summer when he shared a video calling for that specific reform while promoting the health benefits of cannabidiol, particularly for seniors.
Marijuana Moment first reported on leaked details from a White House briefing about the plan on Thursday ahead of the signing event. That includes a directive for top White House staff to work with Congress to give patients access to full-spectrum CBD products, “while still restricting the sale and access to products that cause serious and potentially life-threatening health risks.”
The order also urges Congress to examine updating the definition of hemp to ensure that full-spectrum CBD is accessible to patients—a policy change that could mitigate some concerns in the sector about a recent spending bill Trump signed with provisions that would broadly ban consumable hemp products.
Separate from Trump’s order, Mehmet Oz, administrator for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), will also be announcing “a model that will allow a number of CMS beneficiaries to benefit from receiving CBD under doctor recommendation at no cost,” a White House official said during the briefing.
Trump endorsed rescheduling—as well as industry banking access and a Florida adult-use legalization initiative—on the campaign trail last year. The president had been largely silent on the issue since taking office during his second term, until an August briefing, where, in response to a reporter’s question, he announced that the administration would decide on rescheduling within weeks.
By moving forward with the plan, Trump is completing a process initiated under the Biden administration. That involved a scientific review by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)—which concluded that Schedule III is a more appropriate category for marijuana—as well as the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).
Recent news reports revealed that Trump was planning to issue the executive order directing federal agencies to move ahead with cannabis rescheduling following a meeting with marijuana industry executives, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Mehmet Oz. During that meeting, Trump reportedly phoned House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), who expressed his opposition to rescheduling cannabis.
The rescheduling announcement comes weeks after the president signed a key spending bill that would effectively ban most consumable hemp products, drawing criticism from stakeholders in the hemp industry who argue the policy change would eradicate the market.
Meanwhile, amid the heightened rumors that the Trump administration would be moving forward on marijuana rescheduling, multiple top congressional Democrats made the case that the reform would not go far enough—including one senator who said the move is only an attempt by the president to “gaslight” voters into thinking he legalized cannabis to boost his “pathetic” approval ratings.
Dozens of Republican members of Congress have urged Trump not to reschedule marijuana, arguing that it would harm public health and safety.
Written by Kyle Jaeger for Marijuana Moment | Featured image by Gina Coleman/Weedmaps
The post Trump Signs Executive Order To Reclassify Marijuana By Removing It From Schedule I appeared first on Weedmaps News.
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Cannabis is now in the middle of a rare federal pivot. President Trump has signed an executive order directing the federal government to move marijuana toward reclassification under federal law. Some see the shift as long overdue recognition of medical reality. Others worry it could deepen federal control over a plant that remains illegal nationwide.
President Trump announced during a press conference today that he has directed marijuana to be removed from the most restrictive category of the Controlled Substances Act and placed into Schedule III, a class reserved for substances deemed to have accepted medical use but subject to regulation.
Gathering in the Oval Office, the President directed Attorney General Pam Bondi to move what federal law still calls “marijuana” from Schedule I to Schedule III, marking the first time since 1970 that cannabis would no longer be listed alongside drugs considered to have no medical value.
“We have people begging for me to do this. People in great pain,” the President said. He was flanked by health officials. “I want to emphasize [that] the order I’m about to sign is not the legalization. It does not legalize marijuana in any shape or form and in no way sanctions its use as a recreational drug.”
“Some people are literally dying with tremendous pain and this can literally stop it in many cases and they have their sense about them.”
“I promised to be the president of common sense and that is exactly what we’re doing.”
“I’ve never been inundated by so many people as I have about this particular reclassification.”
“When you see polls show 82% of people want this.”
Placed in Schedule I during the Nixon administration, cannabis was legally defined as having a high potential for abuse and no accepted medical use. Other Schedule I drugs include heroin, LSD, and ecstasy.
Schedule III drugs, by contrast, are recognized as having medical applications. They include ketamine, anabolic steroids, and products like Tylenol with codeine. Fentanyl, notably, remains a Schedule II drug, despite being linked to 48,422 overdose deaths in 2024 alone. Cannabis has no known lethal overdose threshold.
Public opinion has long diverged from federal policy. Roughly 64% of Americans support full legalization, and more than 90% support medical use. 24 states have legalized adult use, most recently Ohio and Delaware, while 42 states allow medical cannabis, including Mississippi.
The practical effects of rescheduling remain uncertain. Federal arrests for marijuana are rare. Enforcement largely happens at the state level.
The most immediate impact could be financial. Moving cannabis out of Schedule I would remove the tax penalties imposed by IRS code 280E, which currently prevents cannabis businesses from deducting ordinary expenses. The tax artificially inflates their costs of doing business. These higher costs are then passed on to the consumer in the form of higher prices for retail cannabis products.
“This change will also likely benefit cannabis consumers by resulting in lower overall prices for retail products, further incentivizing them to abandon the underground market,” said NORML Executive Director Paul Armentano.
Numerous federal statutes are tied specifically to cannabis’ Schedule I status, touching tax law, housing access, employment protections, gun ownership, and more.
Rescheduling could improve a person’s ability to secure federal housing, maintain employment protections, or access medical cannabis through veterans’ programs. It could also strengthen certain workers’ compensation claims.
But those potential gains come with significant caveats.
Critics warn that placing cannabis in Schedule III may expose THC to greater federal oversight, particularly from agencies like the FDA, without ending prohibition or protecting existing state markets.
Marijuana Policy Project Executive Director Adam Smith said the organization supports descheduling rather than rescheduling, paired with basic consumer safety rules.
“Schedule 3 is a compromise position that was initially from the previous administration that wanted to appear as if they were backing reform without actually addressing the problem,” Smith said. “Certainly, any progress is progress.”
Some in the cannabis industry worry that Schedule III could open the door to pharmaceutical dominance. Federal law, however, still places limits on that scenario.
Research may become easier under Schedule III, but companies would still need FDA approval for specific drugs derived from federally approved cannabis sources. Pharmaceutical companies cannot simply sell plant-based cannabis products through pharmacies.
“That plant material itself is not going to be a pharmaceutical product,” Smith said.
Several cannabis-related drugs already hold FDA approval, including Marinol (synthetic THC), nabilone, and Epidiolex. Despite their existence, the state-legal cannabis market has grown into a $45 billion industry.
The president cannot directly reschedule a drug. But he can order the Attorney General to do so.
Under the Controlled Substances Act, the Attorney General has the authority to reclassify substances. Historically, that power has been delegated to the Drug Enforcement Administration, which rejected five previous rescheduling petitions.
If Attorney General Bondi proceeds, the change would be published in the Federal Register and likely face legal challenges.
Anti-cannabis group Project SAM has already urged opposition. In an August 28 letter to Bondi, nine members of Congress argued that rescheduling would “send a message to kids that marijuana is not harmful.”
“I think this will be tied up in litigation for quite some time,” Armentano said.
The Executive Order is likely to energize Trump’s supporters who favor cannabis reform. Politically, the move is largely symbolic. It reflects a reality that the public reached long ago.
“It’s a recognition from the federal government that marijuana has medical value,” Armentano said. “Claims that cannabis poses unique harms to health, or that it’s not useful for treating chronic pain and other ailments, have now been rejected by the very federal agencies that formerly perpetuated them.”
That acknowledgment follows decades of advocacy and research, including testimony from cancer patients, epilepsy patients, and others who have relied on cannabis therapeutically.
Rescheduling could also influence state policy debates. Lawmakers opposing reform will no longer be able to cite Schedule I as justification.
NORML Political Director Morgan Fox said Republican backing could shift the landscape.
“Having a Republican administration backing this effort will likely embolden more Republican lawmakers, many of whom have privately endorsed marijuana policy reform, to now do so publicly,” Fox said.
Placing cannabis in Schedule I was one of the foundational acts of the modern drug war. The designation carried cascading consequences.
Parents who used marijuana were treated like heroin users by child welfare systems. Banks servicing cannabis businesses were viewed as criminal enterprises. Millions lost access to housing, education, employment, or financial services.
For some, the consequences were fatal. Prohibition fueled violence, robberies, and long-term criminal records that continue to shape lives.
Activists have long argued the designation was political, not scientific. Former Nixon administration officials later acknowledged it was designed to suppress youth and minority voters during the Vietnam War and Civil Rights era.
In 2022, President Biden ordered a review of cannabis’ Schedule I status. The Department of Health and Human Services concluded that modern science supported rescheduling. The process ultimately stalled at the DEA.
The Trump administration has taken a different approach, relying on executive authority rather than prolonged review. The move reflects an expansive view of presidential power and a shift away from DOJ independence.
Trump publicly endorsed Florida’s legalization initiative during last year’s campaign and accepted donations from cannabis companies, including Curaleaf and Trulieve. He has previously floated rescheduling as a trial balloon.
Today’s rescheduling order may carry legal and symbolic weight, but hemp legalization has already reshaped the marketplace.
THC-A flower ships nationwide. Delta-8 drinks line shelves in prohibition states. In that context, rescheduling arrives late, after federal hemp policy quietly opened the floodgates.
For longtime advocates, however, even partial movement matters.
“No matter what happens, the battle for nationwide cannabis law reform is far from over,” Armentano said.
High Times note: Rescheduling acknowledges medical reality. It does not end prohibition. The fight for decriminalization and full legalization continues.
Shealeah Craighead, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
<p>The post Trump Reschedules Marijuana. But, Wait… There’s A Catch first appeared on High Times.</p>
The safety of THC vaping products is a critical concern for consumers and regulators alike, given the unique challenges associated with inhaled substances. Ensuring product integrity from manufacturing to consumption involves adherence to specific standards…
The post SAFETY STANDARDS FOR THC VAPING PRODUCTS appeared first on Greencamp.
