The cannabis landscape shifted dramatically in 2024 and 2025, with federal rescheduling moving closer to reality, several states tightening rules on hemp-derived products, and new health research raising questions about daily use. Whether you’re following the industry, using cannabis, or just trying to keep up, here’s what actually changed.
Federal Rescheduling Is Underway
Cannabis has been classified as a Schedule I substance under the Controlled Substances Act since 1970, placing it in the same legal category as heroin. That’s now changing. In 2023, the Department of Health and Human Services recommended moving cannabis to Schedule III, and the FDA and the National Institute on Drug Abuse both backed the recommendation. In May 2024, the Department of Justice issued a proposed rule to make the move official.
The proposed rule drew nearly 43,000 public comments and is currently awaiting an administrative law hearing. A White House executive order has directed the Attorney General to complete the rescheduling process as quickly as federal law allows. Schedule III is the same category that includes drugs like ketamine and some anabolic steroids. It still means cannabis is a controlled substance, but it signals federal recognition that cannabis has accepted medical uses and a lower potential for abuse than Schedule I drugs.
A Major Tax Shift for Cannabis Businesses
For decades, a provision called Section 280E has made it nearly impossible for cannabis companies to operate like normal businesses. Under 280E, any business “trafficking in controlled substances” listed as Schedule I or II cannot deduct ordinary expenses from its taxes. That means cannabis companies couldn’t deduct employee wages, rent, marketing, or virtually anything else. The only deduction available was cost of goods sold.
Reclassifying cannabis to Schedule III changes the math entirely. Once a final rule is published, 280E would no longer apply to cannabis businesses, opening the door to standard business deductions and tax credits. Companies could claim the qualified business income deduction, write off equipment purchases, and deduct research and development costs in the year they’re incurred. This shift coincides with broader tax changes under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which revived 100% bonus depreciation and increased expensing limits to $2.5 million. For an industry that has operated under punishing tax burdens, the financial impact could be enormous.
Florida Voted No on Recreational Use
One of the most closely watched ballot measures of 2024 was Florida’s Amendment 3, which would have legalized recreational cannabis for adults 21 and older. It received 55.9% of the vote, with nearly 6 million Floridians voting yes. But Florida requires a 60% supermajority for constitutional amendments, so the measure was defeated. Medical cannabis remains legal in the state, but the recreational market Floridians expected didn’t materialize.
States Are Cracking Down on Hemp-Derived THC
While the federal rescheduling debate plays out, a parallel battle is happening over hemp-derived intoxicants like Delta-8 THC. These products exploit a loophole in the 2018 Farm Bill, which legalized hemp but didn’t specifically address psychoactive compounds derived from it. Several states moved aggressively in 2024 and 2025 to close that gap.
Indiana classified Delta-8 THC as a controlled substance in March 2025, making possession, sale, and manufacturing illegal. Alabama now requires hemp-derived cannabinoids to be sold only through licensed dispensaries. Florida capped THC in hemp products at 5 milligrams per serving as of July 2024, effectively pulling many Delta-8 products off shelves. Maryland restricted Delta-8 sales to licensed cannabis dispensaries only. Tennessee didn’t ban the products outright but now requires licensing for all manufacturers and sellers, and prohibits sales to anyone under 21.
The trend is clear: states are either pulling these products into the regulated cannabis market or banning them altogether, closing the era of largely unregulated hemp-derived intoxicants sold at gas stations and convenience stores.
THC Potency Keeps Climbing
Today’s cannabis is not what it was a generation ago. Dried cannabis harvested in the 1990s contained about 5% THC. The average flower sold in legal dispensaries now tests between 15% and 20%, with some strains reaching 35%. Concentrates are far stronger: in Washington State, the average THC concentration for concentrates hit 69% in 2022. This matters because most health research on cannabis risk, and most of the public’s lived experience with the drug before legalization, is based on products that were a fraction of today’s potency.
Daily Use Linked to Heart Attack and Stroke Risk
New research published in connection with the American Heart Association found that adults who used cannabis daily had 25% higher odds of heart attack and 42% higher odds of stroke compared to people who didn’t use it at all. That doesn’t mean every daily user will have a cardiovascular event, but it’s a meaningful risk increase, particularly for people with existing heart conditions or other risk factors.
Canada’s lower-risk cannabis use guidelines, among the most detailed public health frameworks available, recommend limiting use to occasional days per week rather than daily consumption. They also advise choosing products with lower THC and higher CBD ratios, avoiding driving for at least six hours after use, and abstaining entirely if you have a personal or family history of psychosis or substance use disorders, or if you’re pregnant. “Frequent or intensive use” is described as “among the strongest and most consistent predictors of severe and/or long-term cannabis related health problems.”
Cannabinoid Hyperemesis Syndrome Is Rising
One condition getting more attention is cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome, or CHS, a pattern of severe, repeated vomiting triggered by heavy cannabis use. A cross-sectional study published in JAMA Network Open examined over 188 million emergency department visits between 2016 and 2022 and found a marked increase in visits consistent with CHS, with the sharpest rise occurring during the COVID-19 pandemic from 2020 to 2021. Cases clustered heavily among adults aged 18 to 35.
CHS is frequently misdiagnosed because its symptoms mimic food poisoning, cyclic vomiting syndrome, and other gastrointestinal conditions. The distinguishing feature: symptoms resolve when the person stops using cannabis and return when they start again. As potency and daily use rates climb, emergency physicians are flagging CHS as a diagnosis they’re seeing more often, though the rate of increase appeared to plateau in more recent data.