Does Rescheduling Help Home Growers? Even Cannabis Lawyers Are Split

The Trump administration’s rescheduling order moved FDA-approved marijuana drug products and certain state-regulated medical marijuana products from Schedule I to Schedule III. But for Americans who grow their own at home, the most basic question, did anything actually change for me?, depends entirely on which cannabis attorney you ask. We asked four. They disagree.

On April 23, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche signed an order rescheduling two specific categories of marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule III: FDA-approved drug products containing marijuana, and marijuana products regulated under qualifying state medical marijuana licenses. It was the biggest federal cannabis shift in decades. For the commercial medical marijuana industry, it was a landmark moment. For home growers, the picture is considerably murkier.

We put the same core question to four of the country’s leading cannabis attorneys: Does the rescheduling order cover home growers? They read the same order. They cited the same language. They landed in different places.

The disagreement turns on a deceptively small distinction: whether a state patient cultivation card is a “license” in the federal sense, or merely a state-level permission slip that still sits outside the Controlled Substances Act. That distinction, business versus person, commercial supply chain versus backyard grow, is doing enormous legal work in a document that doesn’t spell out the answer.

What the order actually says

The relevant language is specific. The order moves into Schedule III: FDA-approved drug products containing marijuana, and marijuana “subject to a qualifying state-issued license.” It then defines “state medical marijuana license” as “a license issued by a state entity authorizing the licensee to manufacture, distribute, and/or dispense marijuana or products that contain marijuana for medical purposes.”

Everything else remains Schedule I. “Any form of marijuana other than in an FDA-approved drug product or marijuana subject to a state medical marijuana license remains a Schedule I controlled substance,” the order states, subject to all applicable “administrative, civil, and criminal sanctions.”

So the question is: does your home grow qualify as marijuana “subject to a state medical marijuana license”? Bob Hoban, one of the country’s most recognized cannabis attorneys and a longtime fixture in federal drug policy debates, says ordinary personal home grow remains outside the framework. Michael McQueeny, Partner and Co-Chair of the Cannabis and Hemp Group at Foley Hoag, agrees. Steven Schain, Of Counsel at Malkin Law and a cannabis law professor at Stockton University, takes the opposite view: state-licensed patient cultivation drops to Schedule III. Marshall Custer, who co-leads Husch Blackwell’s cannabis team of more than 80 attorneys, lands somewhere more complicated: personal-use home growers remain federally illegal, but state medical cultivation permit holders may now face Schedule III obligations rather than freedom.

The strict reading: home grow stays Schedule I

Hoban draws the line clean.

“Home cultivation lives on that other side. It doesn’t fit within an FDA-approved framework, and it doesn’t clearly fall within the definition of products containing marijuana subject to a qualifying state-issued license. A patient card, a statutory right, a backyard grow — those are not the same as a licensed, regulated entity operating within a closed system.”

Bob Hoban, cannabis attorney

Hoban traces the reasoning back to the international treaty framework underpinning the entire order. The Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, the 1961 UN treaty that Blanche used as legal authority for the rescheduling, requires centralized government control over cannabis production. No decentralized cultivation. No backyard supply chains.

“That treaty doesn’t leave room for ambiguity. It requires nations to tightly control medical cannabis through a government-supervised structure, effectively a monopoly over production and distribution. No home grows. So when you ask whether a patient card equals a license, the answer under this framework is almost certainly no. One is participation. The other is permission to operate within a controlled system.”

Bob Hoban, cannabis attorney

McQueeny agrees and points to the order’s own regulatory text as the clearest evidence.

“The federal legal risk for home growers is therefore the same as it was the day before this order. Marijuana they grow, possess, or use without a qualifying state license to manufacture, distribute, or dispense remains Schedule I as a matter of federal law.”

Michael McQueeny, Partner, Foley Hoag

McQueeny notes that the order’s expedited DEA registration pathway contemplates applicants seeking federal registration as marijuana “manufacturer, distributor, or dispenser,” commercial language built for institutional infrastructure. A patient growing six plants under a state patient card doesn’t fit that description.

Also read: Hidden in the Rescheduling Order: Could the DEA Become the Nation’s Biggest Weed Dealer?

He flags one genuine gray area: caregiver cultivation licenses, state-issued licenses that authorize a designated individual to grow and supply cannabis to patients, could theoretically qualify under the order’s language, depending on how a state structures the permit. But personal cultivation for personal use is clearly outside the framework, in his reading.

“The most dangerous misconception is that rescheduling means broad and unfettered legalization, or that if your state says you can grow, the federal government now agrees. For home growers specifically, it would be a mistake to read the April 23 order as extending any federal protection to personal cultivation.”

Michael McQueeny, Partner, Foley Hoag

The broader reading: licensed patient cultivation drops to Schedule III

Schain gave the most direct pro-home-grow reading of the order. His position is concise and categorical: if a state has issued a license for patient cultivation for medical purposes, those plants qualify.

“State-licensed patient cultivation or home grow for medical cannabis drops to Schedule III.”

Steven Schain, Of Counsel, Malkin Law

In his reading, a state-issued patient cultivation license is enough. He also noted that the practical federal enforcement risk for home growers hasn’t changed either way, because federal enforcement of home cultivation was already minimal before the order. States were the primary enforcers of these rules, not the feds.

The third answer: Schedule III may bring obligations, not freedom

Custer offers the most complicated answer of the four and, in some ways, the most important one for home growers to hear.

On personal-use home cultivation, he is unambiguous, as that pull quote makes clear. But when it comes to crops produced under a state medical permit, his reading is closer to Schain’s than to Hoban’s, with a crucial twist. He says marijuana crops produced under a state medical permit may now be Schedule III. But that is not necessarily good news. If you qualify, you may now be required to register with the DEA as a Schedule III handler, a significant federal compliance obligation that most individual patients and caregivers are completely unprepared for.

“If you are growing as a licensed medical caregiver, the DOJ order requires that you register with the DEA to handle Schedule III substances. This is going to be a heavy lift for most caregivers. Perhaps DEA will issue additional guidance to address the administrative burden of this process, but I would not count on it.”

Marshall Custer, Partner, Husch Blackwell

That is the twist buried in the rescheduling order that almost nobody is talking about. Qualifying for Schedule III doesn’t mean freedom from the federal system. It may mean entry into it, with all the registration, compliance, record-keeping and DEA oversight that entails. A system built for pharmaceutical manufacturers, not patients growing medicine at home.

Custer’s broader warning goes further. For years, the federal government largely stayed out of state-regulated marijuana, while Congress barred the DOJ from using certain funds to interfere with state medical marijuana laws. That era, he says, is ending.

“In general, the federal medicalization of marijuana is not good news for small companies and home growers. In the long run, federal requirements are almost certain to be stricter than state programs. And as the federal government ramps up oversight and control of medical marijuana, enforcement will follow.”

Marshall Custer, Partner, Husch Blackwell

He draws an analogy that lands hard. There is a place for home brewers in a world where alcohol is commercially regulated. There may eventually be a place for home growers in a world where cannabis is federally medicalized. But it is not guaranteed, and the path there runs through a federal regulatory framework that was not designed with the backyard grower in mind.

Adult-use home growers: nobody says this helps you

This needs to be said plainly. None of the four attorneys, including Schain, who gave the most favorable reading of the order for medical home growers, said the rescheduling order helps adult-use home cultivation in any way. Schain was explicit: the order “creates no complications nor protections for adult-use cannabis home growers.” Adult-use home grow remains Schedule I under every reading of this order.

What would actually fix this

McQueeny is direct about what real federal protection for home growers would require. The June 29 hearing, which will consider broader rescheduling of all marijuana, could theoretically help if it results in all marijuana moving to Schedule III. But even then, Schedule III still means controlled substance. Still means federal registration requirements not designed for someone growing a few plants at home.

“True protection for home growers would most likely require either descheduling marijuana entirely, removing it from the Controlled Substances Act, or enacting legislation that creates an express federal safe harbor for personal cultivation consistent with state law. Neither of those steps is on the immediate horizon.”

Michael McQueeny, Partner, Foley Hoag

Hoban frames the longer-term tension clearly. Two systems are now running on parallel tracks: federal medicalization on one side, state home grow rights on the other. When those tracks collide, it won’t be theoretical.

“While Schedule I was a blanket prohibition, messy and unevenly enforced, Schedule III could become something different: a structured system with defined participants and defined outsiders. Home growers may find themselves not just illegal in theory, but increasingly incompatible with the economics and politics of a regulated market.”

Bob Hoban, cannabis attorney

The bottom line

Here is what the attorneys collectively make clear. For ordinary personal-use home growers, the federal answer is mostly unchanged: you remain outside the framework this order created. For medical patients and caregivers with state-issued cultivation permits, the answer is genuinely contested, and even if your grow qualifies for Schedule III, that may mean new federal compliance obligations rather than freedom. For adult-use home growers, nothing in this order helps you.

The most dangerous thing you can do right now is assume that because your state says it’s legal, the federal government now agrees. It doesn’t, at least not clearly, and not for most home growers under any reading of this order.

The fight for home growers runs through descheduling. And descheduling is not on the immediate horizon.

Rescheduling is movement. It is not freedom.

High Times, December 2025

This article is legal analysis and reporting, not legal advice. Home cultivation rules vary by state, and anyone facing legal risk should consult counsel in their jurisdiction.