Marijuana 1-to-3 Act Mandates Federal Rescheduling from Schedule I to Schedule III Within 60 Days

The Marijuana 1-to-3 Act of 2025 is short, but it packs a punch: it forces a major shift in how the federal government views cannabis. Specifically, this bill mandates that the Attorney General move marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule III of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA). Schedule I is reserved for drugs with “no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse”—think heroin. Schedule III includes drugs like Tylenol with codeine or anabolic steroids. The bill gives the Attorney General a strict 60-day deadline from the moment the law is enacted to issue the official order making this transfer. No wiggle room, no long studies—just a hard deadline for the administrative action.

The Schedule Shift: What It Actually Means

For everyday people, this is a massive shift in federal legal severity. Right now, because marijuana is Schedule I, it's treated federally as a highly dangerous substance with zero medical value. This classification creates huge headaches for researchers, banks, and businesses operating legally under state laws. Moving it to Schedule III acknowledges that it has accepted medical uses and a lower potential for abuse than Schedule I substances. This change doesn't make marijuana federally legal for recreational use, but it significantly reduces the federal risk associated with it and opens the door for easier medical research.

The Real-World Impact on Your Wallet and Research

One of the biggest practical changes comes down to money and business. Currently, cannabis businesses operating legally under state law can’t deduct standard business expenses from their federal taxes due to an IRS rule (280E) tied to trafficking Schedule I and II substances. Moving marijuana to Schedule III would lift that 280E tax burden, instantly making state-legal cannabis businesses more profitable. This could stabilize the industry, potentially leading to lower prices for consumers and more legitimate banking access for these companies, which is a huge deal for anyone working in or near the sector.

Furthermore, researchers and medical professionals stand to benefit greatly. Schedule III status means researchers won't have to navigate the extreme regulatory hurdles required for Schedule I substances just to study cannabis’s medical applications. For a patient in a state where medical marijuana is legal, this could mean faster, more rigorous research on dosage and efficacy, leading to better medical products down the line. This administrative move is primarily a procedural change, but its policy implications—from tax law to medical science—are anything but minor.