NEWS PROVIDED BY
CatholicVote
Dec. 17, 2025
WASHINGTON, Dec. 17, 2025 /Standard Newswire/ — As President Donald Trump weighs loosening restrictions on marijuana, moving it from Schedule I to Schedule III, CatholicVote is launching a national effort to convince him otherwise. Through the CatholicVote Action Center, individuals can send a prewritten email directly to the president, urging him to keep today’s highly addictive marijuana on Schedule I.
Those components of cannabis that offer medical benefits are already listed on Schedules II-IV, but all past reviews have concluded that marijuana itself should remain on Schedule I because it offers no medical benefit and has a high potential for abuse. The Centers for Disease Control says 30% of users become addicted to the drug; those who start young are at even higher risk.
“After more than a decade of widespread legalization, the verdict is in: recreational marijuana has worsened public health, endangered young people, and imposed massive costs on families and communities,” said CatholicVote President & CEO Kelsey Reinhardt. “Today’s marijuana is not like that of the 1960s. It has been deliberately engineered to be seven to 30 times more potent, and we are only beginning to understand the consequences. People are not just getting high, they are getting addicted, hospitalized, and harmed.”
The American College of Cardiologists says regular users face increased risks of heart attack and stroke; while medical experts have coined a new term for the sharp increases in cannabis-related emergency room visits: cannabis hyperemesis syndrome.
Scientific studies by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM), Frontiers in Psychiatry, and Nature find that cannabis use alters brain chemistry, increasing risk of psychosis, schizophrenia, severe anxiety, and suicidal ideation. Among adolescents, regular use is associated with a permanent drop in IQ, impaired emotional development, and long-term difficulty forming relationships, succeeding in school, or holding a job. That is especially worrisome because 36% of twelfth graders and 43% of college students reported using marijuana in 2021.
“Rescheduling cannabis before FDA approval and long-term safety studies could be catastrophic for public health. We cannot afford another generation paying the price,” Reinhardt said. “I ask every concerned American to join us at CatholicVote Action Center today to urge President Trump to keep marijuana on Schedule I.”
CatholicVote is America’s top Catholic advocacy organization, leading the fight for faith, family, and freedom, aiming to inspire every Catholic in America to live out the truths of the Catholic faith in public life.
SOURCE CatholicVote
CONTACT: Laurie Olsen, 571-305-3814, lolsen@catholicvote.org