President Donald Trump announced Tuesday that his administration will decide “over the next few weeks” whether to ease federal restrictions on marijuana. While cannabis companies have put aggressive pressure on the president to reclassify the drug, doing so would be a deadly mistake.
First, some background. The Controlled Substances Act authorizes the federal government to place drugs in one of five schedules, each of which imposes restrictions and penalties based on a drug’s potential for abuse. Schedule I, where marijuana is currently listed, contains substances with no accepted medical use and a high risk of abuse.
