Floridians deserve access to safe, affordable cannabis
| Your Turn
Trump signs EO easing federal marijuana restrictions
President Donald Trump signed an executive order easing federal marijuana restrictions.
- A recent executive order directs the rescheduling of marijuana to Schedule III, acknowledging its medical benefits.
- Despite most states legalizing medicinal cannabis, federal policy lags, creating regulatory uncertainty for patients and businesses.
- The article calls on Florida lawmakers to pass state-level protections for medical marijuana patients.
President Trump’s recent executive order directing the rescheduling of marijuana to Schedule III marks a significant moment in the long national debate over cannabis policy. The order acknowledges what patients, physicians, and researchers have said for years: cannabis has accepted medical benefits, and federal policy should reflect science rather than stigma. It also directs federal agencies to expand access to full-spectrum CBD, improve research using real-world evidence, and urges Congress to modernize the definition of hemp so patients are not cut off from products they rely on.
This executive action is welcome, but it also underscores a more profound truth. Americans have already made their position clear. They want safe, legal access to cannabis. They want access to this plant, which can serve as food, a tool for religious practice, a natural material, and a medicine. Yet more than a century of misinformation has left the country with a confusing and unstable patchwork of laws that harms patients, workers, and small businesses alike.
Barriers to cannabis use still exist across employment policies, housing law, family law, and healthcare policy. Most states have legalized the medicinal use of cannabis, but federal policy has consistently lagged behind reality. As a result, millions of Americans who rely on cannabis for medicine—and tens of thousands of small businesses built around legal cannabis products—remain subject to shifting political winds and regulatory uncertainty.
That uncertainty has been compounded by half-measures that carve the plant into artificial categories, creating what many small businesses describe as a regulatory sandcastle. While rescheduling cannabis to Schedule III is a meaningful step toward aligning federal law with science, it should not result in more bureaucracy or new barriers. It should recognize and protect state medical cannabis programs that have been operating safely and effectively for more than 20 years. Federal rescheduling will not disrupt those programs, but it also will not solve the serious problems patients face.
That is why Florida must act now.
Florida’s legislative session begins on Jan.13, 2026, and lawmakers will consider bills that would provide immediate, practical protections without waiting on Washington. Proposed legislation would allow people with opioid prescriptions to qualify for medical marijuana, empower physicians to certify adequate supply instead of arbitrary limits, permit biannual card renewals, establish full reciprocity with other state programs, and provide free or reduced-cost medical marijuana cards for veterans. These are common-sense reforms that address real patient needs today.
Cannabis as medicine is only one of several uses of the plant. It also plays a role in soil remediation, nutrition, and sustainable manufacturing. Finally, its medical value is no longer seriously disputed. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has acknowledged cannabis’s accepted medical benefits. As President Trump has noted, humans have an endocannabinoid system that responds positively to cannabis products. Policy should be guided by that scientific reality, not fear, delay, or politics.
For 27 years, the Florida Cannabis Action Network has advocated for restoring legal access to this plant. Americans who rely on cannabis deserve legal protection, not political whiplash. Floridians deserve access to safe, effective, and affordable cannabis—and leadership at the state level willing to deliver it now.
Jodi James is the president of the Florida Cannabis Action Network, a statewide advocacy organization that has worked for nearly three decades to advance sensible, science-based cannabis policy. www.FLCAN.org
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