This state just opted out of federal marijuana rescheduling

Despite popular support, there’s no legal cannabis access in Wyoming, one of the handful of remaining U.S. states with no medical marijuana or adult-use legalization.

But as hearings in Washington concerning reclassifying all marijuana continue, Wyoming officials are opting out of federal marijuana rescheduling, state Attorney General Keith Kautz said on Tuesday.

Following a December presidential executive order, the Trump Justice Department in April reclassified “state-licensed” medical cannabis as well as U.S. Food and Drug Administration-approved marijuana products to Schedule 3 of the Controlled Substances Act.

That’s allowed operators in states across the country to pursue U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration registration, a status that may allow for interstate and international commerce as well as tax relief.

However, marijuana rescheduling may have an uneven effect at the state level, where changes in federal law are triggering obscure legal processes, as MJBizDaily has reported.

Can a state opt out of Trump marijuana rescheduling?

In Wyoming, state drug laws generally follow federal law. However, Wyoming state law also allows the state attorney general to object – and on May 28, Kautz did just that, triggering a legal process on the state level.

Kautz justified his objection on two facts:

• There are only three FDA-approved marijuana products, and all three are already scheduled.
• Wyoming lawmakers have not legalized medical cannabis.

“The question of whether to remove any type of marijuana from Schedule 1 of the Wyoming Controlled Substances Act is for the Wyoming Legislature and should not be done through the administrative rulemaking process,” Kautz said in a press release Tuesday.

“As stated in the original objection to the rescheduling, the decision to reschedule medical marijuana and marijuana products is an important policy decision that is best left with the Wyoming Legislature and should not be done through the administrative rulemaking process.”

Will Wyoming ever legalize medical marijuana?

Efforts to change cannabis laws in Wyoming and open the state to legal businesses have struggled.

A 2023 campaign to qualify a medical cannabis legalization voter initiative for the 2024 ballot failed in part because of inconsistent guidance from state election officials, advocates said at the time.

In 2024, Wyoming also banned Farm Bill-compliant hemp products, a ban the state successfully defended in court the following year.

Wyoming is not one of the two states officially challenging marijuana rescheduling during the hearings ongoing before a DEA administrative law judge.

Those states are Indiana and Nebraska, the latter of which has legalized medical marijuana, though no cannabis is yet available.

Separately, several parties have filed suit in the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals to block marijuana rescheduling, a move the Trump Justice Department formally opposed on July 2.

The DEA hearings are scheduled to conclude next week.