Trump’s Drug Czar Says Marijuana Still Illegal After Schedule III Reclassification
ONDCP director Sara Carter Bailey told Newsmax this week that marijuana is “still illegal” after the April 23 rescheduling order. The line is doing a lot of work. Schedule III moved state-licensed medical cannabis into the same federal category as ketamine and Tylenol with codeine. What’s still illegal in the strict sense is everything outside […]
White House drug czar says cannabis is “still illegal” after rescheduling (Newsletter: May 11, 2026)
Study: Older adults see marijuana as Rx alternative; MN psilocybin amendment passes; LA psychedelic treatment vote; MA anti-cannabis ballot lawsuit Subscribe to receive Marijuana Moment’s newsletter in your inbox every weekday morning. It’s the best way to make sure you know which cannabis stories are shaping the day. Your support makes Marijuana Moment possible… Your good […]
White House Drug Strategy Shows Trump Administration’s Conflicts On Marijuana And Other Issues, Experts Say
“The administration, on the one hand, is moving in a direction of liberalizing access to cannabis, but at the same time, in the strategy, it talks about the dangers of doing so.” By Aneri Pattani, KFF Health News The White House’s newly released strategy for tackling the nation’s drug and addiction crisis calls for a […]
White House Raises Alarm About ‘High-Potency’ Marijuana And Its Marketing In New National Drug Strategy
The White House released a new National Drug Control Strategy on Monday that raises alarm about “high-potency” marijuana and expresses concerns that international cartels and crime groups “exploit” state cannabis legalization laws. It also discusses the forthcoming federal recriminalization of hemp THC products that is scheduled for later this year under a law signed by […]
The Drug That Nearly Destroyed Me Was Legal
In Indiana, the drugs that nearly destroyed my life were perfectly legal. Doctors administered them through IV lines while I lay in hospital beds: morphine, fentanyl, Dilaudid. I wasn’t chasing a high. I was a patient, and I trusted the system. Between 2014 and 2019, my life became a revolving door of hospital admissions. I […]
Matt Zorn and the Next Phase of America’s Drug Policy Revolution
By Hirsh Jain via Cannabis Confidential newsletter. Subscribe here. How Zorn’s trajectory from litigator to policymaker echoes Thurgood Marshall. As we look back on the most consequential week in the modern history of American drug policy, much of the attention and fanfare has focused on President Trump, and for good reason. Trump displayed a unique […]
Kratom Crackdown Signals New Drug Policy Shift
As federal cannabis rescheduling looms on the horizon and more states across the country begin rolling out regulations for legal psychedelic therapy, health officials have increasingly been targeting a centuries-old psychoactive plant from Southeast Asia with newly introduced measures of prohibition. Kratom is a leafy green botanical native to Southeast Asia that acts on the […]
Meet the 19 Experts the UN Chose to Help Shape the Future of Drug Policy
The Commission on Narcotic Drugs’ new 19-member expert panel will help inform the UN’s 2029 global drug policy review, with potential consequences for cannabis regulation, harm reduction, treaty flexibility, and criminal justice reform worldwide. The United Nations’ Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND) recently announced the participants of its newly established Expert Panel, whose purpose is […]
Less MDMA, More Cocaine and Ketamine: Wastewater Data Reveals Shifts in Drug Use in Europe
The world’s waters are polluted: no news there. We’ve been living with this issue for decades, which shows little sign of abating… But if we can’t fight it, we can at least study it. Indeed, analyzing our river systems can offer valuable insights into population health. That’s the aim of the new study by the […]
Marijuana Reform Isn’t This White House’s Drug Policy Priority
Sara Carter, the former investigative journalist and Fox News contributor now serving as White House drug czar, has spent her early months emphasizing fentanyl, trafficking and addiction, not marijuana reform. Cannabis may still move through federal channels, but it is clearly not the part of drug policy this White House wants to lead with. If […]


