New schedule III status boosts outlook for state-licensed medical cannabis

Editor’s note: This commentary is provided by the Medical Marijuana Education and Research Initiative (MMERI) of Florida A&M University.

The impact of the Trump administration’s recent decision to reclassify medical marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule III extends far beyond an official acknowledgment of the drug’s "accepted medical use." This historic shift is expected to bolster the cannabis industry’s financial strength, broaden clinical research, and potentially usher in health insurance coverage. 

As a Schedule I drug, marijuana, whether medicinal or recreational, was listed in the same category with other highly addictive drugs like heroin when the Controlled Substances Act was implemented in 1970. In contrast, Schedule III substances are recognized for their therapeutic benefits and carry a lower potential for abuse or dependency. 

To be clear, marijuana remains illegal at the federal level regardless of its use, a status that only Congress has the authority to change. Florida permits only medical cannabis use for qualified conditions treated under the care of a medical marijuana qualified physician.  

“This is a monumental shift for the cannabis industry,” says attorney Paula Savchenko, founding partner of Cannacore Group and PS Law Group. Her South Florida firm provides licensing and regulatory compliance services to cannabis businesses across the country. 

According to Ms. Savchenko, the Schedule III classification will provide massive tax relief to state-licensed medical marijuana operators. Previously, they were subjected to Section 280E, a federal statute that barred Schedule I and II drug businesses from deducting "ordinary and necessary" business expenses such as rent, maintenance, and workers' compensation insurance. Whether deductions can be applied retroactively to past tax returns is unknown, she says, adding that the rescheduling move could open up medical marijuana to international export and import, as well as interstate commerce opportunities.   

Two experts in healthcare foresee the Schedule III classification easing federal barriers to marijuana research, an outcome that could yield improvements in cannabis education and patient care. 

Dr. Shamerial Roberson, the founder and CEO of DSR Consulting and Management, is a nationally recognized health and human services leader with extensive expertise in public health administration. She says reclassification will help to boost the role of Florida A&M University’s legislatively mandated Medical Marijuana Education and Research Initiative (MMERI).

MMERI “is potentially positioned very well to work with organizations and work with medical marijuana treatment centers. . . .[It] has the authority to educate the public about medical marijuana and illicit use and also has the authority to do pedagogical research on education as it relates to marijuana,” she says. 

Dr. Terel Newton, medical director of the largest cannabis operator in Florida, Trulieve, is also optimistic for the future of marijuana research, saying, “I think a lot of the opportunities for research will open up because you have different nonprofit organizations, different institutions, different universities that did not even want to engage with licensed dispensaries because they were worried that they would lose federal funding and other types of funding.” 

Dr. Newton, who specializes in interventional pain management, anesthesiology, and addiction treatment at Total Pain Relief in Jacksonville, adds that he’s also excited about the prospect of health insurers extending coverage to medical marijuana care. 

“So, when [medical cannabis patients] purchase their medicine, they're more likely to come across insurance companies that will reimburse because now it's Schedule III instead of Schedule I,” he says. 

Dr. Mark Moore, who founded the first medical marijuana doctor’s office in Florida, MEDCAN, agrees that medical marijuana’s new drug status will help usher in an increase in referrals from other doctors.  

While the Schedule III classification comes as a great relief to the medical marijuana sector, Dr. Moore says the change doesn’t altogether eliminate the banking industry’s reluctance to service a market whose product line includes substances banned at the federal level. He points to adult-use marijuana accounting for two-thirds, or $20 billion, of the industry’s annual revenues, as an obstacle to banking cannabis cash in states where both uses are legal.  

“I don't know how banks are going to get involved until companies separate, completely separate, the one-third from the two-thirds,” he says, referring to the revenue disparity between medical and recreational marijuana.  “If you just dump it all in the same pot, no pun intended, the banks can't touch it.”

But that situation could change on June 29. That’s the date the Trump administration is scheduled to hold a hearing on its intentions to move recreational marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule III.

Visit bit.ly/MMERIApril2026 to watch MMERI’s Conversations on Cannabis Virtual Forum featuring Paula Savchenko and Drs. Shamerial Roberson, Mark Moore, and Terel Newton, talking about the recent reclassification of state-licensed Medical Marijuana.