The short answer
Cannabis is still illegal under federal law. It sits on Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act, in the same category as heroin and LSD, and that has not changed. What is changing is the federal posture toward it. The government is in the middle of a formal process to move cannabis to Schedule III, Congress keeps writing bills that die in the Senate, and a stack of protections for state medical programs gets renewed every year. None of that is legalization. It is a slow reclassification fight, and the difference matters.
when will cannabis be rescheduled
If you live in a state with a legal market, your state law is what keeps the shop open. Federal law is what keeps the shop's bank nervous.
Rescheduling is not legalization
People mix these up all the time, and the confusion has consequences.
Rescheduling means the DEA moves a drug from one CSA schedule to another. Schedule III drugs are recognized as having accepted medical use and a lower abuse potential than Schedule I or II. Moving cannabis there would not make it legal to sell across state lines, would not erase state licensing rules, and would not stop the FDA from regulating it as a drug. Possession without a prescription would still be a federal offense, though those charges are filed almost never.
Weed Rescheduling Progress: Where It Stands Now
What rescheduling would do is real, if narrow. It would end the 280E tax rule that forces cannabis businesses to pay federal tax on gross income instead of net income, which is a brutal hit for any dispensary. It would make it easier for researchers to study cannabis without Schedule I hoops. And it would let pharmaceutical companies develop cannabis-based drugs through a normal approval path.
Where the process stands
In August 2023, the Department of Health and Human Services told the DEA that cannabis should be Schedule III. The DEA published a proposed rule in May 2024 saying it agreed. That opened a formal review with public comments and evidentiary hearings before an administrative law judge, which began in late 2024 and carried into 2025. The judge's recommendation goes to the DEA administrator, and the final rule, whatever it says, can be challenged in court. Expect months to years, not weeks.
Congress keeps trying
Full legalization would take an act of Congress, and the votes have not been there. The MORE Act passed the House twice, in 2020 and 2022, and never got a Senate vote. Comprehensive reform bills in the Senate have been introduced, debated in committee, and parked. The Senate's 60 vote threshold is the wall. A narrower banking bill that would let cannabis businesses use banks has come close and still has not passed both chambers.
My read: legalization through Congress is possible within the next several years, but it depends on election results, not on momentum.
What is already protected
- A spending rider, renewed with each appropriations cycle, blocks the Justice Department from using federal money to stop states from running medical cannabis programs. It does not cover recreational markets.
- Federal prosecutors have not been bringing simple possession charges, and presidential pardons in 2022 and 2023 covered federal simple possession offenses.
- Hemp is legal under the 2018 Farm Bill, which is why you can buy CBD and, in many states, hemp-derived THC products. The FDA has not signed off on those as legal supplements, so the rules vary by state.
What I would watch
- The DEA's final rule on Schedule III, and whether anyone sues over it.
- Whether the medical cannabis rider survives the next funding fight.
- Senate banking bill movement, which is often a preview of broader reform.
- State ballot measures, since state law is the ground floor of any federal deal.
The practical version for shoppers
Nothing about your purchase changes until a federal rule or statute says so. Buy from licensed shops, keep it in the state where you bought it, and do not fly with it or carry it across state lines, since that is federal jurisdiction. If you work for a federal agency or hold a security clearance, federal law still applies to you no matter what your state allows.