Cannabis advocates’ efforts to ease regulations surrounding the drug reached a new high last month when the Trump administration announced it would reschedule medical marijuana under a less strict category.
State medical marijuana products will be moved from Schedule I, the most regulated category, for drugs like heroin with no medical use and high potential for abuse, to Schedule III, for drugs with low potential for abuse like Tylenol with codeine and testosterone, according to an April 23 order from the Department of Justice. The order also moves FDA-approved products that contain marijuana to the less-regulated category, though only a few such products have been greenlit by the agency.
Though the decision to reschedule medical marijuana isn’t expected to have a major impact on employers for now, it could pave the way for more employees to request accommodations under the Americans with Disabilities Act, legal experts told HR Brew.
Accommodating for change. Since California became the first state to legalize medical marijuana 30 years ago, most of the country has followed suit. As of Feb. 2026, medical marijuana use was legal in roughly 40 states and Washington, DC. About half of these states have legalized recreational marijuana.
The DOJ’s recent order doesn’t touch recreational weed, and some employers can—and do—bar the use of such substances in their workplaces, Brett Gelbord, a partner with the law firm Dykema, based in Detroit, said. In recent years, he said he’s...
exporters knowingly avoided U. S. duties on Asian and European flat-rolled steel products, agreeing to pay $19 million to resolve the dispute, according to a press release issued Wednesday by the U...