President Donald Trump’s recent comments on cannabis rescheduling landed as the top trending storyline that Cannabis Business Times’ readers did not want to miss out on this month.
Nearly seven months after his inauguration, Trump broke his silence on the cannabis reform topic during a White House press conference on Aug. 11, when he told reporters “we’re looking at that,” and “we’ll make a determination … over the next few weeks.”
Trump turned around and looked at Attorney General Pam Bondi when he mentioned the timeframe for the determination on whether to move forward with a proposed rule to reclassify cannabis from a Schedule I to Schedule III drug under the Controlled Substances Act.
The current rescheduling hearing process, ignited under President Joe Biden, was stayed by a now-retired administrative law judge in early January and has been pending the resolution of an interlocutory appeal since.
The Trump administration could decide to resume the hearing process under a new Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) administrative law judge, move forward on the current proposed rule without the hearing process by fast-tracking straight to a final rule, start from square one with a new scientific and medical review under the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, or just scrap the reform package altogether.
Taking the No. 2 spot in CBT’s Top 10 most-read articles this month was a piece on U.S. House Rep. Greg Steube, R-Fla., filing legislation to reclassify cannabis to a Schedule III substance—the Marijuana 1-to-3 Act—the day after Trump’s comments.
“It makes zero sense that federal law treats marijuana the same as heroin and LSD,” Steube said. “It is even more ridiculous that cocaine is technically classified as less restrictive than marijuana.”
Other articles that readers did not want to miss out on in August included those on the Texas Senate passing another hemp THC ban bill in a second special session, AYR Wellness’ Massachusetts exit, and a well-known lawyer bringing to light that he alerted New York cannabis regulators more than a year ago that they were erroneously measuring buffer zones between dispensaries and schools.
Don’t miss out on our Top 10 stories from August 2025.
