Next month marks a milestone in federal drug policy: in October 2025, the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) turns 55.
Signed on October 27, 1970, the law reorganized America’s approach to drugs into five “schedules,” created a national registration system for manufacturers and prescribers, and ultimately centralized enforcement in what became the Drug Enforcement Administration. The CSA passed the House 341 to 6 and cleared the Senate by unanimous consent before President Richard Nixon signed it.
The law’s scheduling framework still defines the national conversation. Schedule I—reserved for substances deemed to have a high abuse potential, no accepted medical use, and a lack of accepted safety—has long included marijuana. That designation ripples through every layer of policy: it complicates basic research, underpins federal criminal penalties, and keeps state-legal businesses operating in a gray zone under federal law. The CSA’s structure and legislative history explain why decades of state reforms have not, by themselves, changed marijuana’s federal status.
Efforts to change that status intensified in recent years. In 2022, the Biden administration directed health and justice officials to review marijuana’s placement under the CSA; in August 2023, the Department of Health and Human Services formally recommended moving marijuana to Schedule III. The Department of Justice then initiated rulemaking, and the DEA published a notice of proposed rulemaking in 2024, beginning the administrative process that could shift marijuana off Schedule I. That proposal is still pending final action.
The current White House has also weighed in. President Donald Trump said recently that he will make a decision in the coming weeks on whether his administration will move forward with reclassifying marijuana, a move advisors have told us is essentially a sure thing.
While rescheduling would ease research barriers and remove some federal tax burdens tied to Schedule I status, many advocates and lawmakers argue that only full descheduling can resolve the disconnect between federal law and the growing number of states that allow marijuana. The MORE Act—a House bill to remove marijuana from the CSA and expunge certain prior offenses—now lists 47 sponsors this session, according to The Marijuana Herald’s tracking. A group of over 40 organizations recently sent a letter to Congress encouraging lawmakers to sponsor the bill.
Fifty-five years after Congress created the CSA, the country sits at an inflection point. The scheduling system that defined federal drug control for half a century is under the most serious reconsideration in its history, with parallel pushes to shift marijuana to Schedule III or to deschedule it entirely. October’s anniversary is more than a date on the calendar—it’s a reminder that the framework built in 1970 is still being rewritten in real time.
More articles from The Marijuana Herald can be found below.
