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Updated: May 7, 2025

Op-ed: Federal cannabis regulations should be revised to reflect legalization in states

By Roger Katz

During my four terms in the Maine Senate, which included serving as co-chair of the joint select committee on marijuana legalization implementation, I spent years navigating the complexities of cannabis policy.

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Roger Katz

I’ve worked alongside colleagues on both sides of the aisle to ensure that any steps we take are measured, data-driven and rooted in public benefit.

As a result of our collective work, many jobs have been created in Maine and millions of dollars have been generated in revenue for the state.

And while the existing Maine law is not perfect — for example, there is legitimate debate around whether our adult/recreational and medical systems should be merged into one regulatory scheme for oversight — I believe it is time to take an important step forward nationally: our federal government should reschedule cannabis from Schedule I to Schedule III under the Controlled Substances Act.

This change is long overdue. The current Schedule I classification, put in place over 50 years ago, groups cannabis with heroin as substances that are considered to have no accepted medical use.

Yet cannabis is now legal in some form in 38 states, including our own here in Maine. Veterans use cannabis to manage post-traumatic stress disorder, cancer patients turn to it to ease the side effects of chemotherapy and individuals with chronic pain have found cannabis to be a safer alternative than opioids. The Schedule I label doesn’t just ignore this reality — it actively harms those who rely on this treatment.

Rescheduling cannabis to Schedule III would be a pragmatic step. It would affirm what millions already know: cannabis does have medical value.

It would also allow researchers greater access to study its therapeutic properties without navigating the bureaucratic challenges currently imposed on Schedule I substances. For veterans and other patients, this means more data, better products, and more informed care.

Rescheduling would also be a good step forward to help the many companies that operate in the cannabis space in Maine access banking services. The inability of state-legal cannabis companies to gain that access up to this point has created an unsafe, cash-dominated industry that puts workers and communities at risk and makes any kind of compliance oversight that much more difficult. It makes zero sense to deny businesses working in this industry the ability to get loans or access to the same banking services that other small businesses have.

Let me be clear: supporting rescheduling is hardly a radical position. It’s a bipartisan, evidence-based, pro-veteran, pro-patient policy. It aligns with the views of many in the medical community, the recommendations of the Department of Health and Human Services, and the evolving perspective of the American public. And it sends a message that we’re ready to treat cannabis with the seriousness and nuance it deserves.

As someone who has worked closely with law enforcement, health care professionals and veteran advocates, I know firsthand that rescheduling cannabis is not a panacea. It will not resolve every challenge in our patchwork of state and federal cannabis policies. But it is a necessary step — a bridge between outdated federal policy and modern state realities.

By rescheduling cannabis to Schedule III, we can ease the burden on patients, expand research, support our veterans, and bring our policies more in line with science and compassion. It should be a no-brainer.
 

About the author

Roger Katz practices law in Augusta. A former president of the Maine Trial Lawyers Association, he served two terms as mayor of Augusta and four terms in the Maine Senate.

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