By Kit Maher, Steve Contorno, Sarah Owermohle

(CNN) — President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday to expedite the reclassification of marijuana – an effort to increase research on its medical use but not fully legalize it.

“This reclassification order will make it far easier to conduct marijuana-related medical research, allowing us to study benefits, potential dangers and future treatments,” Trump said in the Oval Office. “It’s going to have a tremendously positive impact.”

The order — which directs Attorney General Pam Bondi to hasten the process of loosening federal restrictions but does not include a timeline — comes after an intensive lobbying campaign from the cannabis industry.

“I’ve never been inundated by so many people as I have about this particular reclassification,” Trump said.

Cannabis is currently considered a Schedule 1 drug, along with heroin, LSD and ecstasy, which are not considered to have any acceptable medical use, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration. It will eventually be reclassified as a Schedule 3 drug, which, according to the DEA, have “a moderate to low potential for physical and psychological dependence.”

“The facts compel the federal government to recognize that marijuana can be legitimate in terms of medical applications when carefully administered. In some cases, this may include the use as a substitute for addictive and potentially lethal opioid painkillers,” Trump said, calling the move “common sense.”

Trump’s action does not federally legalize marijuana, though the drug is already legal in several states. The order does not affect recreational marijuana and does not include any criminal justice changes.

It also calls on the White House to work with Congress to “update the statutory definition of final hemp-derived cannabinoid products” after the latest government funding legislation restricted products with more than 0.4 milligrams of THC per milligram.

That’s welcome news for advocates of CBD, as well as hemp farmers, business owners and some patients who rely on CBD and were sounding the alarm after the provision passed.

Dr. Mehmet Oz, the administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, on Thursday also announced a new model to unlock funding for CBD for some seniors — an initiative championed by Trump’s longtime friend Howard Kessler, an advocate for expanded medical cannabis access.

“The innovation center models are going to allow millions of Americans on Medicare to become eligible to receive CBD as early as April of next year and at no charge, if their doctors recommend them,” Oz said in the Oval Office.

Thursday’s order was welcomed by the cannabis industry, which spent heavily to influence Trump on the issue. But industry leaders cautioned that barriers remain.

“We’ve been operating with both hands tied behind our back,” Trulieve CEO Kim Rivers told CNN. “And now it’ll only be one hand tied behind our back.”

Critics, meanwhile, raised the alarm that reclassifying marijuana will send a signal that it’s safer than it is.

Trump has spent much of the year mulling how to reclassify marijuana after first declaring his support for changing federal marijuana policy in the 2024 presidential race amid an aggressive courtship of younger voters.

But privately, administration officials have been divided on how to approach marijuana policy changes, as CNN previously reported. Marijuana reform, for example, was notably absent from a list of priorities issued by DEA Administrator Terrance Cole this summer.

The DEA has historically rejected bids to reschedule marijuana, arguing that its medical benefits have not been proven. President Joe Biden in 2022 directed federal agencies to review its classification, leading health officials to recommend Schedule 3 status.

DEA proposed that move in May 2024, but action stalled after that.

A symbolic step for drug research

The order is a symbolic first step for drug research, scientists and policy experts told CNN. But the red tape around growing the plant, studying its uses or starting a legitimate marijuana business, remains.

“The assumption is that marijuana is going to be treated like every other Schedule 3 drug, but there are lots of reasons why we should suspect that it won’t be,” said Cat Packer, a lawyer with the Drug Policy Alliance who led Los Angeles’ cannabis regulation program. “The reality is that we don’t know how cannabis is going to be enforced under this new regime.”

While Schedule 3 technically means a doctor could medically prescribe a drug, that also is a legal gray zone for marijuana. Doctors can only legally prescribe drugs that are approved by the US Food and Drug Administration.

“Once it becomes Schedule 3, it becomes something prescribable – but how do doctors know what to do with this?” said Sue Sisley, who leads the Scottsdale Research Institute’s studies on marijuana and psychedelics.

“Doctors are going to have a real struggle to figure out how to help their patients,” said Sisley. “But they’re going to have a lot of patients approaching them now about it because of this new status.”

But Trump’s directive stoked optimism for advocates of CBD, who were left scrambling last month when Congress passed the measure that would effectively ban CBD products that many Americans use to treat epilepsy, pain and PTSD.

Paige Figi, who treated her severely epileptic daughter with CBD and now lobbies policymakers as the executive director of the Coalition for Access Now, was set to join Trump during his White House announcement.

Jonathan Miller, the general counsel of the US Hemp Roundtable, told CNN that the language in the order “makes clear that the THC limits within the appropriations bill are far too low.”

But the order wasn’t universally well received.

“It’s not grounded in anything other than greed, because this is going to allow massive tax breaks for the industry and it’s going to allow them to become more profitable and commercialized,” said Kevin Sabet, president at Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM).

“What it won’t do is legalize marijuana, but it is going to send a very powerful message to, especially to youth, that marijuana is less harmful than once thought,” Sabet added, arguing that’s not the case.

Asked to respond to some Republicans on the Hill who’ve been critical of reclassification, Trump invoked Kessler, a leukemia survivor, and other friends who he said have reached out to him on the issue.

Welcome news for the cannabis industry but challenges remain

Thursday’s order was heralded by the cannabis industry, which embarked on an extensive lobbying effort this year aimed at getting Trump to act.

A group backed by the cannabis industry, American Rights and Reform PAC, aired pro-marijuana ads specifically targeting Trump’s TVs at the White House and Mar-a-Lago, CNN reported in April.

Federal Election Commission records show the PAC also donated $1 million in March to MAGA, Inc., a Trump-aligned super PAC. In addition, the group hired a pollster with close ties to Trump and paid $300,000 to X Strategies, a consulting firm run by Trump adviser Alex Bruesewitz.

Industry contributions have extended beyond the PAC. In 2024, the marijuana company Trulieve and the US Cannabis Council contributed a combined $1 million to Trump’s inauguration, and Scotts Miracle-Gro, a major marijuana player, donated $500,000 to a Trump-aligned super PAC last year.

Rivers, the Trulieve CEO, and Scotts Miracle-Gro CEO James Hagedorn have met repeatedly with Trump over the past year, including in the Oval Office earlier this month. Rivers also attended a fundraiser earlier this year where the dinner guests discussed how to ease federal restrictions on marijuana, CNN previously reported.

In private conversations, Trump has repeatedly said that marijuana should not be subject to the same federal restrictions as heroin and has pointed to the industry’s potential to create jobs, according to Rivers.

“Millions of Americans rely on clean, tested product and if we were not able to stay in business, the void would be filled by illicit cartels,” she told CNN on Thursday. “The president recognizes that as well.”

But some cannabis retailers and researchers warned that it was only a first step toward legitimizing the industry. Congress has not passed legislation that would allow cannabis businesses to use banks and other financial services, and the industry has advocated for changes to the federal tax code.

Under Schedule 1 classification, cannabis businesses aren’t able to “deduct normal business expenses the way that any other small business would be able to,” explained Adam Hoffer, director of excise tax policy at the Tax Foundation. That was “enough to make a huge portion of cannabis businesses unprofitable,” he added.

For that reason, he said, reclassification is “probably the biggest Christmas wish that any operator in the cannabis space could ask for.”

This story has been updated with additional developments.

CORRECTION: This story has been updated to correct Kevin Sabet’s first name.

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