NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — The Trump Administration could consider reclassifying marijuana to a less serious schedule drug, which some Tennessee Republican lawmakers have said would need to happen before they consider legalizing medical marijuana in the state.

Right now, marijuana is a Schedule I drug, the category of drugs with the highest potential for abuse. Other Schedule I drugs include heroin, LSD, cocaine, and MDMA.

President Trump told journalists on Monday his administration was considering reclassifying marijuana to a less serious category.

“We’re looking at reclassification, and we’ll make a determination over the next few weeks, and that determination will hopefully be the right one," President Donald Trump said during an Aug. 11 press briefing.

In the past, some Tennessee Republicans have told News 2 they would not consider legalizing medical marijuana until the federal government reclassified the drug.

"My position is you need to stay consistent, and I'm against sanctuary cities in the state of Tennessee, which is against federal law," Speaker of the House Cameron Sexton (R-Crossville) said in 2020. "Marijuana, unfortunately, is a Schedule I drug at the Federal level, which makes it against the law.  Other states have passed it, and I understand that, but if you are going to be consistent, and as I'm opposed to sanctuary cities because it's against federal law, as long as it's a Schedule I, it's against federal law, and so until that changes, it's hard to have a discussion."

"It solves a lot of problems in that a doctor could prescribe it then, and I think it should be prescribed by a physician," Lt. Gov. and Speaker of the Senate Randy McNally (R-Oak Ridge) said in Jan. 2024.

Paul Armentano, deputy director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), told News 2 the significance of the federal government reclassifying marijuana would be more symbolic.

“Moving marijuana from one category of the federal Controlled Substances Act to a lower category of the CSA does not legalize marijuana nationwide. It simply sets a new set of federal regulations and criteria governing how the federal government recognizes that substance," Armentano said. "Symbolically, I think there is tremendous significance in the federal government for the first time abandoning its flat-earth attitude toward cannabis and recognizing, as the majority of the public already recognizes and the majority of doctors already recognize, that cannabis has medical value."

All previous attempts in the Tennessee legislature to legalize medical marijuana, even Republican-sponsored bills, have failed. Armentano said if lawmakers wanted to change the state's cannabis laws, they likely would have done so already.

“I think that the federal government changing its position and publicly acknowledge its changing its position on this issue could perhaps encourage some lawmakers or embolden some lawmakers, but the reality is the hard work will still remain on the state level, and I don’t know if Tennessee lawmakers are up for it, because they certainly have shown no appetite for doing it in the past," Armentano said.

Tennessee is one of 10 states that have not legalized medical marijuana.

News Source : https://www.wkrn.com/news/tennessee-politics/pres-trump-considers-marijuana-reclassification/