This is the Wilmington Standard Daily Update for Wednesday December 17th, 2025.

Throughout his campaign, and re-highlighted in the last couple of days, President Trump has indicated that he believes it is high time – pun intended – to reclassify marijuana from a Schedule I drug to a Schedule III drug.

The problem is, today’s marijuana IS NOT the same pot your parents or grandparents smoked in a VW microbus while parked at Woodstock. 

According to Axios – in the 1990s, THC – the drug in marijuana that gives the high – was at the most 5%.  Today, in dispensaries across Los Angeles you can’t find product with less than 20% THC.  Many producers only extract THC from the plant – producing products with an even higher percentage of the drug.

At the same time, CBD – the other highly touted chemical present in marijuana – has remained at relatively consistent levels percentage levels.  CBD is often hailed for its healing capabilities.  But what is also does is to help overcome the hallucinogenic effects of its sister drug – THC.  So in effect, breeders have increased the high and decreased the low in the plants they produce.

A study in the JAMA Health Forum found that states that legalized marijuana use had a 10% increase in workplace related incidents for those aged 20 – 34. Additionally, the average cannabis user had double the risk of psychosis – with the heaviest users with a nearly 4 times risk.

We need to stop fooling around with this plant.  Currently it is a Schedule I drug, which means it has no medicinal value at all and is highly addictive.  Studies have shown there are clear medicinal benefits to marijuana – especially for those who are undergoing invasive medical procedures to combat cancer for example.    Conversations about reducing it to a Schedule II drug as a result would be entirely proper.

The President wants to reduce it to Schedule III – which puts it at the same level as Tylenol with Codeine and Testosterone – and gives extensive tax breaks to cannabis growers across the country.  While Schedule III drugs are still highly regulated, it is often used as a gateway for deregulation – as all 24 states across the country that allow recreational use of marijuana – started out by first legalizing it only for medicinal purposes.

We are sorry to say – you are wrong on this one Mr. President.

For the Wilmington Standard, I’m Reuel Sample.  Thanks for listening.