{"id":457051,"date":"2025-12-19T04:49:13","date_gmt":"2025-12-19T04:49:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/457051\/"},"modified":"2025-12-19T04:49:13","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T04:49:13","slug":"local-lawyer-weighs-in-on-trump-order-to-classify-marijuana-as-a-less-dangerous-drug-action-news-jax","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/457051\/","title":{"rendered":"Local lawyer weighs in on Trump order to classify marijuana as a less dangerous drug \u2013 Action News Jax"},"content":{"rendered":"

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 Action News Jax is hearing from a Jacksonville attorney specializing in marijuana law to break down the possible impacts, in Florida and Georgia, of President Trump\u2019s executive order<\/a> calling on the drug to be classified as less dangerous. <\/p>\n

The president\u2019s order directs the U.S. attorney general to classify marijuana as a \u2018Schedule III\u2019 drug, instead of a \u2018Schedule I\u2019 drug. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA)<\/a> has placed drugs like heroin, fentanyl, and LSD in the \u2018Schedule I\u2019 category, which the administration defines as drugs without an accepted medical use. The DEA defines \u2018Schedule III\u2019 drugs, like ketamine and testosterone, as drugs that have an accepted medical use. <\/p>\n

>>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

Michael Ranka is a criminal defense attorney running a practice in Jacksonville, and told Action News Jax the executive order doesn\u2019t make marijuana any more legal in either Florida or Georgia, but does open up the door for more federal research of the drug to be used for medical purposes. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis is certainly big news, but it doesn\u2019t give people a blank check to do whatever they want with marijuana,\u201d Rainka said. <\/p>\n

Right now, Florida law allows marijuana to be bought and used by people with a valid medical card, but using the drug recreationally is illegal. Action News Jax told you last year<\/a> that when Florida voters came close to passing a constitutional amendment to legalize recreational use in Florida, but it didn\u2019t meet the required 60% of support needed to pass. <\/p>\n

Georgia, meanwhile, is one of the 10 U.S. states that don\u2019t allow the use of marijuana medically or recreationally. Rainka said that even if the president\u2019s order spurs lawmakers in Congress to pass a law to federally legalize the drug for recreational use, states, like Georgia, can still maintain laws that criminalize marijuana. <\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think this order has much practical effect on everyday citizens,\u201d said Rainka, \u201creclassifying it from Schedule I to Schedule III really just eases the restrictions on medical research.\u201d <\/p>\n

[DOWNLOAD: <\/b>Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks<\/b><\/a>]<\/b><\/p>\n

Even though individual people may not see much change as a result of the order, businesses will have the opportunity to make more money. The Tax Foundation has reported<\/a> that lowering the drug schedule of marijuana places lower taxes on businesses selling marijuana products. <\/p>\n

Dispensary workers like Patrick Cantin, a \u201cbudtender\u201d in Baymeadows, believe lower taxes on businesses will make products more affordable for those seeking medical marijuana use. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think people are seeing the benefits of this plant more and more, and I think they want our politicians to get with the program, essentially,\u201d Cantin said. <\/p>\n

This week, we learned that the Florida Attorney General sent a proposed constitutional amendment to the Florida Supreme Court to legalize the recreational use of marijuana. The required signatures to support the amendment are due by February 1st, before it is able to be placed on the ballot next November. <\/p>\n

[SIGN UP: <\/b>Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter<\/b><\/a>] <\/b><\/p>\n

Click here<\/b><\/a> to download the free Action News Jax news and weather apps, <\/b>click here<\/b><\/a> to download the Action News Jax Now app for your smart TV and <\/b>click here<\/b><\/a> to stream Action News Jax live.<\/b><\/p>\n

Action News Jax Top Stories<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 Action News Jax is hearing from a Jacksonville attorney specializing in marijuana law to break…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":457052,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5136],"tags":[5229,127685,133372,15621,72155,209189,37807,209191,46583,61251,3188,723,209193,4353,46582,7310,425,209192,209190,138993,7047,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,179054],"class_list":{"0":"post-457051","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jacksonville","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-attorney_general","10":"tag-bay_meadows","11":"tag-ben","12":"tag-canton","13":"tag-cookie_dispensary","14":"tag-democrat","15":"tag-drug_enforcement_administration","16":"tag-finn","17":"tag-finn_carlin","18":"tag-fl","19":"tag-florida","20":"tag-florida_supreme_court","21":"tag-georgia","22":"tag-jack_finn_carlin","23":"tag-jacksonville","24":"tag-local","25":"tag-michael_ranka","26":"tag-patrick_canton","27":"tag-president_trump","28":"tag-republican","29":"tag-united-states","30":"tag-united-states-of-america","31":"tag-unitedstates","32":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","33":"tag-us","34":"tag-usa","35":"tag-white_house"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115744431447163789","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457051","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=457051"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457051\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/457052"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=457051"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=457051"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=457051"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}