Posted on December 13, 2025 View all news
By Aubree Adams, Director of Every Brain Matters
The push to reschedule marijuana is not driven by public health readiness. It is driven by commercial pressure and political convenience.
At the same time marijuana is being normalized, the evidence of harm is mounting: fatal crashes, psychiatric emergencies, homelessness, and violence linked to THC exposure are rising. Reclassifying marijuana to Schedule III would send a powerful — and misleading — signal of safety, locking in preventable harm while profits accelerate.
Public policy should protect people, not markets.
The Warning Signs Are Already Here
As marijuana has become more potent, more accessible, and more normalized, the public harms associated with THC exposure have increased — not decreased.
A peer-reviewed study in the International Journal of Drug Policy estimates that THC-positive driving contributes to approximately 5,000 U.S. traffic deaths each year, accounting for 3–4% of all roadway fatalities.
These are not theoretical risks. These are lives lost — parents, children, first responders — often with no warning and no second chance.
One such tragedy occurred in Sedgwick County, Kansas, where a Sheriff’s Deputy, Sidnee Cartewas, was killed by a driver who admitted to marijuana use before getting behind the wheel. A routine moment turned fatal, leaving a family and community forever changed.
This is what drug-impaired driving looks like in real life — sudden, devastating, and preventable.
Rescheduling marijuana would lower perceived risk precisely when these deaths are rising. That is not progress. It is negligence.
Impairment Without Safeguards Is a Policy Failure
Schedule III drugs are presumed to have accepted medical use, predictable dosing, and manageable risk. Marijuana — particularly in its modern, high-potency forms — does not meet that standard.
There is currently:
- No standardized dosing
- No FDA approval for smoked or high-THC marijuana products
- No reliable roadside impairment test
- Clear evidence that impairment can persist even after blood THC levels decline
The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine concluded that cannabis use increases the risk of motor vehicle crashes.
Rescheduling marijuana pretends regulation exists when it does not, while exposing the public to known, unmanaged risks.
When Brain Health Fails, Housing and Safety Follow
The brain does not exist in isolation. When it is injured, destabilized, or overwhelmed with marijuana, the consequences ripple outward — into families, schools, streets, and shelters.
Cannabis use disorder is disproportionately prevalent among people experiencing homelessness, especially those with serious mental illness.
Research shows:
- Cannabis use disorder is a primary environmental risk factor for schizophrenia, up to 30%
- Substance use undermines housing stability and retention
- A systematic review links cannabis use with housing instability and relapse
Emergency rooms, shelters, and jails have increasingly become default psychiatric systems, while cannabis commercialization continues unchecked.
This is not freedom.
This is cost-shifting human suffering onto public systems.
Violence and Psychosis: The Risk We Refuse to Acknowledge
Pretending marijuana plays no role in severe psychiatric decompensation is dangerous and dishonest.
Potent THC (products that contain 10mg of THC or higher) is strongly linked to psychosis, paranoia, and loss of reality, particularly among adolescents and young adults.
Evidence shows:
- Daily high-THC use is associated with a 3–5× increased risk of psychosis
- Cannabis-induced psychosis has the highest conversion rate to schizophrenia, more than other drugs
- The CDC and peer-reviewed research identify cannabis as a risk factor for:
One widely reported case — Bryn Spejcher v. the State of California — illustrates how cannabis-induced psychosis spiraled into extreme violence, not because someone was “bad,” but because their brain was overwhelmed by THC.
The Texas Department of Family and Protective Services reveals that marijuana is the most common active substance in drug-related child deaths from abuse and neglect.
These cases are heartbreaking precisely because they are preventable.
Tragedies Follow Recognizable Patterns
According to the U.S. Secret Service National Threat Assessment Center, perpetrators of serious violence often exhibit:
- Untreated psychosis
- Substance misuse
- Rapid behavioral deterioration
Repeated tragedies — fatal crashes, violent psychotic episodes, suicides during cannabis-induced psychosis — are not random events.
They are systemic warnings.
Profits Over People Is Not Health Policy
The cannabis industry is projected to generate tens of billions of dollars annually, while:
- Families bury loved ones lost to impaired driving
- Children are exposed to potent THC products
- People with serious mental illness cycle through ERs, jails, and homelessness
- Communities absorb rising emergency, housing, and justice costs
Those who benefit from rescheduling:
- Investors
- Large cannabis corporations
- Commercial interests
Those who pay the price:
- Victims of impaired driving
- People with untreated mental illness
- Families and taxpayers
Rescheduling marijuana now would accelerate commercialization while public health safeguards lag far behind.
That is not reform.
That is profits over people — and taxpayers pay the price.
A Better Path Forward
This is not a debate about ideology.
It is about evidence — and the cost of ignoring it.
The U.S. must:
- Establish enforceable impairment standards
- Mandate national surveillance of cannabis-related harms
- Address THC potency
- Fund prevention and treatment infrastructure
- Require FDA-level safety evidence
For now, do not reschedule marijuana.
It is reckless and dangerous.
Public health policy must serve people, not profits — because every brain matters.
CALL TO ACTION: Act Now — Lives Are at Stake
We urge you to contact President Donald J. Trump immediately and call on him to halt any effort to reschedule marijuana.
Copy and paste the statement below and contact President Donald J. Trump at this link: https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact
President Trump, we urge you to halt any effort to reschedule marijuana and instead choose to put real public-health safeguards in place. As potent THC use rises, so do preventable traffic deaths, psychiatric emergencies, homelessness, and violence—costs borne by families and communities, not corporations. Rescheduling now would send a dangerous signal that these risks are acceptable, prioritizing profits over people and brain health. Please put public safety first by requiring enforceable impairment standards, limits on THC potency, robust national harm surveillance, FDA-level safety evidence, and comprehensive infrastructure for prevention and recovery resources before any policy decision is made. Lives depend on it.
This is not an abstract policy debate.
This is about brain health, public safety, and preventable tragedy.
Federal decisions made now will shape public health and safety for decades.
Your voice matters. Policy changes move quickly — and silence is interpreted as consent.
👉 Share this article with your family, friends, educators, healthcare providers, and community leaders.
“If we know the risks and do nothing, we become complicit in the harm.”
— Every Brain Matters
