New Cannabis Group Will Help Ground Policy In Science And Patient Experience As Trump’s Rescheduling Move Advances (Op-Ed)

*“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.*

The post New Cannabis Group Will Help Ground Policy In Science And Patient
Experience As Trump’s Rescheduling Move Advances (Op-Ed) appeared first on Marijuana
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