Best of the Week: December 12 – December 18, 2025

Let’s dive into the top stories shaping the conversation this week. Summaries of each article are listed below.

1. President Trump Signs Executive Order to Reschedule Cannabis to Schedule III

Although not having the authority to reschedule cannabis, on December 18, 2025, President Trump signed an executive order directing federal agencies to reclassify cannabis from Schedule I to Schedule III controlled substances.

President Trump’s executive order states, “It is the policy of my Administration to increase medical marijuana and CBD research to better inform patients and doctors. It is critical to close the gap between current medical marijuana and CBD use and medical knowledge of risks and benefits, including for specific populations and conditions. Research methods and models should include real-world evidence and should facilitate affordable access in order to rapidly assess the health outcomes of medical marijuana and legal CBD products while focusing on long-term health effects in vulnerable populations like adolescents and young adults.”

2. Legislation Introduced to Regulate Hemp Products as an Alternative to Bans

On December 10, 2025, Oregon Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley reintroduced legislation that intends to create safety standards for hemp products and return them to the market, a press release from Senator Wyden explained. The reintroduction of the Cannabinoid Safety and Regulation Act (CSRA) comes after the addition of provisions related to hemp in the recently passed the FY26 Agriculture Appropriations Bill, which redefined hemp and limited the total amount of THC in hemp-derived products.

3. New York State Medical Cannabis Program Reports Lower Opioid Usage

A recently published study in JAMA Internal Medicine, involving the New York State (NYS) Medical Cannabis Program reported on adults with chronic pain who participated in the program. The study was conducted by researchers from Albert Einstein College of Medicine (Bronx, New York) and Montefiore Health System.

204 adults participated in the study, who had been prescribed opioids for chronic pain and had also recently been certified for medical cannabis between the period of September 208 and July 2023. During the study, patients were monitored for 18 months, with data being collected on both the patients’ cannabis and opioid use that was collected via the New York State Monitoring Program.

“Chronic pain and opioid addiction are two of the most pressing health challenges in the United States,” said Deepika E. Slawek, M.D., M.S., the study's lead author, associate professor of medicine at Einstein, and an internal medicine and addiction medicine specialist at Montefiore. “Our findings indicate that medical cannabis, when dispensed through a pharmacist-supervised system, can relieve chronic pain while also meaningfully reducing patients' reliance on prescription opioids. Supervised use of medical cannabis could be an important tool in combatting the opioid crisis.”

4. Genetics and Cannabinoid Profiles Interview with Zacariah Hildenbrand and Adam Jacques

Our latest publication features an in-depth examination on cannabis genetics with insights from Zacariah Hildenbrand, PhD, partner of Medusa Analytical, LLC Adam Jacques, Geneticist and Cultivator of Big Earth Consulting. In this interview clip, Jacques and Dr. Hildenbrand share how cannabis genetics play a significant role in cannabinoids found in the plant.

Check out the interactive issue for the full article.

5. Cannabis Research Studies Updates: December’s Healer Webinar

In this year’s final installment of the monthly webinar series, Dustin Sulak, osteopathic physician and general practitioner, discussed the latest research on cannabis for various topics and conditions, including the effect of CBD on opioids, guided cannabis use in substance use recovery, THC’s role in reducing alcohol cravings and consumption, and cannabis use for symptom relief for autism spectrum disorder in adults.