KY Gov. Beshear asks Trump to back reclassifying marijuana, support ‘medical freedom’
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Gov. Beshear urged Trump to defend marijuana rescheduling to Schedule III.
- Beshear cited medical freedom and opioid alternatives as key rescheduling benefits.
- Congressional proposal threatens to block DEA funding for rescheduling efforts.
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear is calling on President Donald Trump to allow the federal rescheduling of marijuana to a less severe tier to continue despite recent efforts from Congress to stop it.
“The Drug Enforcement Administration is already in the process of rescheduling marijuana from a Schedule I to a Schedule III — a move you supported in your presidential campaign,” Beshear wrote in a July 22 letter to Trump. “That process should be allowed to play out. Americans deserve leadership that won’t move the goalposts on them in the middle of the game.”
Beshear also wrote a letter DEA Administrator Ann Milgram with a similar plea, saying rescheduling “will have substantial and meaningful impacts.
“For patients, rescheduling destigmatizes medical marijuana, confirms medical freedom, provides an alternative to deadly opioids and ensures continued access to safe products,” the governor wrote.
According to the federal agency’s scheduling guidelines under the Controlled Substances Act, Schedule I drugs contain a high potential for abuse or dependency, like heroin, and carry the highest criminal punishment for possession or trafficking. Schedule I drugs have “no current accepted medical use.”
Schedule III drugs, like Tylenol with codeine or testosterone, carry a “moderate to low potential for physical and psychological dependence,” according to the DEA, and therefore are less regulated.
Most states in the country, Republican and Democrat, have either legalized or decriminalized marijuana, or have a program that allows for less-restricted use of cannabis for medical purposes. Kentucky legalized medical marijuana in 2023, but the law did not take effect until Jan. 1, 2025. The actual legal sale of medical cannabis won’t begin until later this year.
Qualifying conditions include chronic pain, epilepsy, post-traumatic stress disorder and multiple sclerosis.
The DEA first proposed reclassifying marijuana as a less dangerous drug in early 2024 under former President Joe Biden, a Democrat. The move was made, in part, to recognize the medical value of cannabis and to acknowledge it has considerably less potential for abuse than acutely dangerous drugs, like fentanyl.
Biden in 2022 pardoned thousands of Americans carrying marijuana possession charges and called on governors to do the same.
Trump, too, campaigned on a similar message ahead of his election last November, Beshear wrote in his letter this week.
“In September 2024, you stated, ‘as president, we will continue to focus on research to unlock the medical uses of marijuana to a Schedule 3 drug and work with Congress to pass common sense laws,’” Beshear wrote.
But at a recent meeting of Congress’ House Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies, members passed appropriations language that would block the U.S. Department of Justice from using funds to reschedule marijuana, Beshear said.
“This is not a common-sense law,” the governor wrote. “It stops a process that is already underway to accomplish a policy end that is overwhelmingly supported by the medical and scientific communities, as well as the American people of every political party.
“Congress should not take the decision-making process out of the hands of medical and scientific experts when they don’t like the results.”
