“Federal policy must reflect evidence and science, not dispelled myths and tired stereotypes.”
By Sasha Kalcheff-Korn, National Compassionate Care Council
Recent federal action initiating a review of cannabis scheduling and signaling interest in expanding cannabinoid research reflects a growing willingness to examine how federal policy aligns with emerging evidence and real-world patient experience—but it also highlights a significant research gap that must still be addressed. If approached thoughtfully, this moment represents a rare opportunity to bring scientific rigor, clearer regulatory standards and responsible oversight to a space that has operated within a fragmented, state-by-state system for decades.
The new National Compassionate Care Council, announced this week, was formed to help meet that moment.
We represent the healthcare-aligned sector of the cannabis industry—from physicians to patients to responsible manufacturers—united around a single mission: turning executive momentum into durable policy that actually reaches people.
This is not about advancing an industry for its own sake. It is about ensuring that when patients and healthcare providers discuss cannabinoid therapy, they can do so within a clear, evidence-informed federal framework.
Opportunities like this do not move forward automatically. Opponents are already lining up to impede this progress.
Rep. Andy Harris (R-MD) declared openly that he hopes the Department of Justice takes two decades to complete rescheduling. At least that position is clear.
More concerning are the quieter efforts, procedural delays, bureaucratic slow-walking and political hesitation that can stall reform without ever openly debating its merits. The strategy is the same as it has always been: run out the clock on patients who do not have time to wait.
The administration is right that federal policy has suppressed research for too long. But let’s be clear about what that suppression actually means: it means the “lack of evidence” cited by opponents was manufactured by the same regulatory barriers they defend. It is the absence of federally sanctioned research infrastructure, not the absence of therapeutic potential.
And the research that has been done has borne that to be true.
One of the largest-ever reviews of cancer and cannabis found a 75 percent positive consensus supporting cannabis’s potential benefits for cancer symptoms and tumor-related outcomes. A survey of veterans who used medicinal cannabis found that 91 percent said that medicinal cannabis treatment led to a greater quality of life, and 21 percent additionally reported that their medicinal cannabis use reduced the use of opioids. Another large-scale clinical trial found that patients using a full-spectrum cannabis oil saw a 30 percent reduction in back pain after 12 weeks.
The Food and Drug Administration’s own review that produced its Schedule III recommendation saw this reality and acknowledged that medicinal cannabis has demonstrated meaningful relief for patients with chronic pain and other conditions.
That conclusion didn’t emerge from a vacuum. It reflects decades of real-world patient experience, observational data collection, and medicinal use that persisted despite federal barriers to research.
President Donald Trump’s rescheduling executive order calls for the integration of real-world evidence to inform federal standards of care. That is both appropriate and highly necessary given the stakes.
Our members are investing in ethically rigorous and peer-reviewed research, standardized dosing frameworks and compliance infrastructure that can meet that directive. We are not asking policymakers to rely solely on anecdotes. That would just gift our detractors the opening they are looking for. We are actively building the evidence base that patients and providers deserve.
Because that is what the moment requires. If this program is allowed to succeed on its merits, it will confirm what millions of Americans already know and create a federal framework that protects patients, holds manufacturers accountable and gives healthcare providers the data they need to make informed recommendations. If it is delayed indefinitely, uncertainty will continue and it will be patients who bear the consequences.
For families navigating chronic illness today, this is not an abstract debate. It is the lived reality of not being able to achieve the quality of life that patients deserve when it is abundantly available. Federal policy must reflect evidence and science, not dispelled myths and tired stereotypes.
Generational reform has always attracted generational resistance. We are prepared for that fight. But we are not willing to wait decades to have it. For the patients counting on this, the answer cannot be someday. It has to be now.
Sasha Kalcheff-Korn is a founding member of the National Compassionate Care Council and executive director of Realm of Caring, a Colorado-based nonprofit that advocates for and connects people to cannabinoid therapy.
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