Dec 18 2025, was the date that Donald Trump made cannabis a Schedule 3 controlled substance. Profoundly changing the future of cannabis as we know it today, and your ability to legally grow cannabis at home might very well change for the better, and the worse.
The glory days of cannabis genetics being freely traded and sold online are coming to an end. That’s not so much to do with Schedule III as it is Trump’s big beautiful bill, which closed the credit card processing loophole. Cannabis has been on a roller coaster ride for the last 20 years. How we, as a country, treat cannabis might be very different in 20 years. Remember, if you can’t grow it at home, then it’s not legal yet.
It’s groundbreaking that, after many hard-fought years and efforts to legalize the original human herb, we have made some progress at the federal level. As a collective, tho, we should take this as a massive win. And. The great news is that Americans will now have easier medical access to one of the most amazing medical plants on Earth.
First, to understand what’s going on, let’s pull back and see where we came from. Marijuana has been treated as a Schedule 1 drug for the last 35 years. But it was effectively banned by a federal tax law in 1937. The legal and criminal implications as far as a federal judge is concerned, or where it has been state legal, have been very severe, with people still serving life sentences for growing a plant. Furthermore, the ability to fund research to study cannabis has been gated by the feds.
Sure, if you are lucky enough to live in a state where it is legal to grow, you have enjoyed some added protections, and we could pretend like it was legal to grow a small weed plant at home. But let’s not forget medical and recreational cannabis farms still get raided by the feds. And historically, it was common practice. It’s the Feds who get the last word in, and if they come knocking, the state has gotta open the door. Enforcement has changed with administrations and public opinion, but over the past 15 years, marijuana has become mainstream. And while public opinion has been increasing, that wave seems to have crested.
No matter what the state law is. Suppose you are a federal employee, truck driver, lawyer, or one of the hundreds of other professions. Testing positive for cannabis will not only cost you your job, but it will also cost you your career. Withholding people’s access to medical cannabis and potentially life-changing medication.
Federally, your right to own a gun is voided if you’re using a Schedule 1 drug. Importantly for home growers and cannabis businesses, this includes the ability to process credit card payments or even open a bank account. It’s very common for banks to close accounts with millions of dollars in them if legal gets an itch. Giving cannabis businesses only days to find a new one. Same thing with mortgages and business loans. The banks control the flow of money.
So even if you live in a state where it has been legal, it might not have been legal enough for you to enjoy the benefits or for your businesses to flourish. For many Americans, the risk is not worth the reward, especially if you are going to be evicted by your landlord or have your bank loan canceled.
Ok, so we have gone from Schedule 1 to Schedule 3 controlled drug. WTF does that mean, and how is it going to affect our right to grow cannabis at home or get access to the plant? While things did get a little more legal, they also got a bit more controlled, or otherwise known as regulated, licensed, and taxed. If you boil the “cannabis industry” down, you are left with about $100 billion in total market value. That represents a whole lot of money, power, political influence, and taxes. An illegal market is an open market. A controlled market means only government-approved and licensed operations can participate in the legal Schedule 3 market. Everything else is still considered illegal. Leaving it subject to enforcement, placing many recreational businesses potentially exposed.
The good news is you can’t get fired for smoking pot anymore if you have a medical recommendation. And soon, your doctor will be able to prescribe it and recommend a pharmaceutical formulation. Unfortunately, tho, you can still get fired and barred from your profession if you are not a medical patient. If you peel back the layers of the onion, what you will see is a potentially dangerous situation for the cannabis culture and industry. As the pharmaceutical companies come in and do what capitalism is programmed to do: take over.
As for the legality of growing cannabis at home? Well, thankfully, the feds are not raiding anyone for growing a few cannabis plants, so nothing is really going to change. It’s up to your state laws to decide how legal that is. And the good news is if you live somewhere where grow laws are unfriendly, then it’s now a Schedule 3 drug, and the penalties are far less.
Capital moves the needle, and the Pharma industry is 2x times the size of alcohol and tobacco combined. Policy shifts like this don’t come without a massive amount of time and money invested behind the scenes. Every doctor in America has been asked about using cannabis for treatment. Now the green light is on for pharma to deliver.
Research, research, research, and some more. The pharmaceutical industry is renowned for studies that confirm its bias. It’s a natural thing for a capital market to do. What you are going to see is a shift in public opinion driven by “research” conducted by pharma showing how dangerous cannabis can be. And how it should only really be used for medical reasons by medical companies. Now that’s a strong argument to make; they will have no problem digging up all sorts of evidence to back it up, from brain development to gateway drug. Social media influencers will start promoting a sober lifestyle, and public opinion will shift back toward medical treatment. You can already see the change coming among younger generations.
We are also going to research all the benefits of cannabis. I bet they are going to find more than they were expecting and enabling your doctor to prescribe you all kinds of cannabis baised medicines. We can now study the cannabinoid system more easily and potentially develop a whole new category of medications and treatments. This is fantastic for Americans; we can finally get medical cannabis federally.
Cannabis is a remarkable plant; it is the original companion plant for humans.
It has thousands of medicinal and industrial uses, from reducing inflammation and potentially curing cancer to making rope and controlling mosquito larval populations. Soon, your doctor will be able to prescribe you a pill, and you can go to your CVS to pick it up. Pretty cool.
Well, not much is going to change in practice. At least not overnight. However, things will look different in 1 year, 3 years, and 10 years. With the provision in the hemp bill expiring at the end of 2026, you can bet that’s when you’ll see some of the first regulated cannabis products hit the market to fill the void.
In a year or two, when doctors can prescribe cannabis, the older generations are going to be hitting the CBD pills for inflammation and marijuana sleep pills. In the future, getting out of surgery and being prescribed cannabis instead of opioids could be a real possibility. Not only that, but we will also start to see some amazing medications come to market as research progresses on cannabis’ cancer-fighting properties.
Further down the road in 10 years, we might very well have an entirely different cannabis landscape with pharmaceutical companies running the show. Good cannabis will probably go back underground.
Legal drug dealers are not big on sharing the market with illegal ones. At the same time, the legal recreational cannabis industry is overtaxed and overregulated. If the far future, it would not surprise me if pharma convinces the government that cannabis is dangerous and it should shut down the recreational market. It’s kinda what pharma combined with capitalism does.
So the good news is that cannabis has become a little bit more legal for the average American. For the present cannabis industry and the culture, red flags should be going off left and right. Pharma has won the war on cannabis.
Getting access to buying seeds online might become more difficult. That’s not so much due to Schedule 3 but rather the termination of the “Hemp Loophole” that accidentally made hemp sales legal for the banks. In November 2026, because of the “Big Beautiful Bill,” banks and credit cards will no longer be able to process seed sales or sales of products containing any THC derivative. There is talk on the hill of a 2026 Farm Bill, so there might be some future relief on the way.
Previously, because seeds contained less than 0.03% THC, they were effectively legal under the Farm Bill. Thus creating a loophole that enabled anyone with a credit card to conveniently go online and buy cannabis seeds—unleashing a $100 million seed market.
Now, the online sale of seeds is effectively getting banned again. That’s a major bummer for the ability to source cannabis genetics to grow weed at home easily. Sure, you’ll still be able to get seeds and clones. It’s the World Wide Web, so stopping seed sales is near impossible, and your local cannabis dispensary will probably stock them. But making it harder sure is easy when you control the bank’s ability to take your money. So, in a way, growing at home has already gotten a little harder.
And in the future, if we are not careful, growing at home could get even more challenging. No one is paying money to lobby for home-growing rights. The cannabis industry is not a fan, becuase when people learn how cheaply they can grow weed, they dont come back to buy as often. Pharma isn’t going to want people growing their own drugs; they have spent 15 years getting theirs to market.
In November 2026, credit card companies’ ability to process payments for cannabis seeds will expire. That should be your first alarm bell. The glory days of freely selling cannabis genetics and seeds online are drying up! And now the era of pharmaceutical companies controlling the laws and spending on lobbying is about to begin. We could well see a resurgence of the black market.
Cannabis wasn’t declared legal, so people are not out in the streets lighting up in celebration. In fact, many industry veterans are gearing up for a whole new era of cannabis to unfold. If history tells us anything, it’s that pharma doesn’t like sharing its markets with other drug dealers. It’s a renowned industry for ruthless tactics and extreme long-term planning.
The great news is that America is going to be tapping into a whole new era of medical cannabis and soon giving legal access to patients across the country without fear of losing their job or license. This opens up 1000s of avenues and enables medical companies to openly research cannabis, somthing that we haven’t been able to do as it was schedule one.
As for growing your own cannabis at home, stock up on seeds now while you can. Here are some discount codes if you want them before it gets a little harder at the end of 2026, when the hemp loophole closes. So grab yourself some legal cannabis seeds while you still can!
Q: What happened to cannabis scheduling on December 18, 2025? A: On December 18, 2025, an executive action officially moved cannabis from Schedule 1 to Schedule 3 under the Controlled Substances Act. This reclassification recognizes the medical benefits of cannabis at the federal level for the first time, though it does not fully legalize recreational use nationwide.
Q: Can I still legally grow cannabis at home under Schedule 3? A: Yes, in practice, your right to grow at home remains largely tied to your specific state laws. While the federal government has shifted cannabis to Schedule 3, they generally do not prioritize enforcement against individuals growing small amounts for personal use. However, federal law still does not explicitly “protect” home growing.
Q: How does Schedule 3 affect my job and drug testing? A: One major benefit of Schedule 3 is that medical patients with a valid recommendation may have stronger protections against being fired for off-duty cannabis use. However, certain professions (like federal employees or truck drivers) may still face strict restrictions until specific agency policies are updated.
Q: Why is it becoming harder to buy cannabis seeds online? A: The difficulty isn’t directly caused by Schedule 3, but by the closing of the “Hemp Loophole” in the 2026 Farm Bill. Starting in late 2026, credit card processors and banks will face stricter regulations regarding the sale of seeds and THC derivatives, making it harder for online seed banks to accept traditional payments.
Q: What is the “Big Beautiful Bill” and the 2026 deadline? A: This refers to the updated federal legislation affecting the hemp industry. By November 2026, the loophole that allowed seeds and THCA products to be sold freely online is expected to close, potentially pushing the high-quality genetics market back underground or into local dispensaries only.
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