President Trump is reportedly considering rescheduling marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule III under the Controlled Substances Act, which would significantly liberalize the rules that currently regulated it. Former U.S. Attorney and Congressman Bob Barr recently argued in The Hill that Trump should go ahead and do it.

But although his proposal is framed as a pragmatic reform, it overlooks critical scientific evidence and public health risks. A more thorough examination reveals that rescheduling marijuana would be a dangerous misstep — one that prioritizes corporate interests over the well-being of society.

The most authoritative federal review of cannabis research comes from the 2017 National Academies of Sciences Report, which identified only three medical conditions with substantial evidence supporting cannabis efficacy: chronic pain in adults, chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting, and spasticity symptoms in multiple sclerosis.

Notably, conditions like post-traumatic stress disorder were classified as having only “limited evidence,” meaning cannabis cannot be conclusively deemed an effective treatment. This directly contradicts claims that marijuana is a proven remedy for PTSD. In fact, the 2021 Veterans Affairs and Department of Defense Clinical Practice Guidelines explicitly........

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