President Donald Trump on Thursday signed an executive order to downgrade marijuana’s drug classification, bringing it to a lower rung that would allow it to be used for more research but would not affect how federal law enforcement handles drug arrests.
The order is one of the biggest changes to drug policy in the last few decades — and fulfils one of Trump’s campaign promises.
“I’ve never been inundated by so many people as I have about this particular reclassification,” the president said in the Oval Office, seated among top officials from the Department of Health and Human Services.