Articles and Videos – Page 13

President Trump Signs Executive Order to Reschedule Marijuana

Dec 19, 2025Jerry CoxMarijuanaMarijuana

On Thursday, President Trump signed an executive order to expedite the process of moving marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule III of the Controlled Substances Act. The change would put marijuana in the same category as anabolic steroids or Tylenol with Codeine.

Rescheduling marijuana would not legalize marijuana outright, but it will create more confusion about marijuana’s legal status and make it much easier for people to grow and use marijuana.

A body of scientific evidence reveals that marijuana is harmful — especially for teens and young adults.

Nationwide, since 2019, the number of kids diagnosed with cannabis-induced mental disorders, including schizophrenia and psychotic episodes, has increased by 50%.

And research has shown time and again that marijuana has a significant potential for dependence and abuse.

Modern scientific evidence links marijuana to deadly heart diseases, cancers, stroke, mental illness, and birth defects. In fact, researchers say marijuana doubles a person’s risk of death from heart disease.

And instead of decreasing crime, marijuana legalization has actually emboldened drug cartels and increased the flow of illegal drugs across America.

Unilaterally reclassifying marijuana as a Schedule III substance is a major step in the wrong direction.

On Wednesday, Arkansas’ U.S. Senator Tom Cotton joined several of his colleagues in a letter urging President Trump not to reclassify marijuana. The letter reads:

We write to ask you to uphold marijuana’s status as a Schedule I drug. Rescheduling marijuana to a Schedule III drug will undermine your strong efforts to Make America Great Again and to usher in America’s next economic Golden Age. The only winners from rescheduling will be bad actors such as Communist China, while Americans will be left paying the bill.

Marijuana continues to fit the definition of a Schedule I drug due to its high potential for abuse and its lack of an FDA-approved use. The evidence shows that marijuana is harmful to its users, especially to young people and women who are pregnant and nursing.

According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration, studies show that marijuana is linked to “depression, anxiety, suicide planning, and psychotic episodes.” Tragically, mass shootings have a link to marijuana use, including school shootings; in fact, the shooter who attacked a Catholic school in Minneapolis blamed his actions on “gender and weed” and wrote, “I wish I never tried experimenting with either.” Additionally, marijuana has long-term effects on brain health, including “permanent IQ loss” when a person starts using marijuana at a young age.

Lastly, babies are also at risk from marijuana, as marijuana use during pregnancy may result in “fetal growth restriction, premature birth, stillbirth, and problems with brain development, resulting in hyperactivity and poor cognitive function.”

We cannot reindustrialize America if we encourage marijuana use. America’s workplace and America’s roads are endangered by marijuana use. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has identified studies linking marijuana use to “impaired judgment” and “lack of concentration,” as well as research finding increases in industrial accidents, injuries, and absenteeism among employees who tested positive for marijuana versus those who tested negative.

Additionally, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration warns that marijuana users are more likely to be involved with car crashes and studies show that marijuana impacts motor skills, cognitive functions, and user’s ability to multitask, which is a “critical skill” for drivers.

Rescheduling would also give a massive tax break to marijuana companies. These companies are currently prohibited from taking business tax deductions under Section 280E of the Internal Revenue Code due to their involvement with marijuana, given its status as a Schedule I drug. According to the marijuana industry’s own researchers, marijuana companies would obtain a $2.3 billion tax break if marijuana were to be rescheduled.

Marijuana business leaders have said they will use this infusion of funds to increase their marketing and to expand their businesses into additional states.8 While supporters of rescheduling argue that extending tax benefits to marijuana businesses will create economic growth, the costs of workplace and vehicular accidents caused by increased marijuana usage far exceeds any perceived benefits— not to mention the moral costs of marijuana advertising that could reach kids.

In light of the documented dangers of marijuana, facilitating the growth of the marijuana industry is at odds with growing our economy and encouraging healthy lifestyles for Americans. We urge you to continue your strong leadership of our country and our economy, and to turn away from marijuana rescheduling.

Last year Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin joined 10 other state attorneys general in a letter asking the Biden Administration not to reclassify marijuana as a Schedule III substance.

Among other things, the A.G.’s comments noted that “rescheduling marijuana would violate the United States’ international treaty obligations” regarding illicit drugs, and that rescheduling marijuana would “compound the harms” that marijuana already causes.

As Family Council told the federal government in our public comments we submitted in July of 2024, reclassifying marijuana signals that marijuana has an accepted medical use when it actually does not. It ignores the potential for abuse and dependence among users. And it risks contributing to psychotic disorders and mental illnesses in America.

Marijuana may be many things, but “harmless” simply is not one of them.

Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.

Family Council Asks Department of Education to Protect Team Sports in State Rules

Dec 18, 2025Jerry CoxVideoHome School, LEARNS, Video

On Monday, Family Council and its homeschool division, the Education Alliance, submitted public comments asking the Arkansas Department of Education to rethink a set of proposed rules prohibiting education freedom account money from being used for team sports under the Learns Act.

The proposed rules say that registration fees, equipment dues, and any costs associated with club and team sports cannot be paid for with EFA funding.

Watch this video to learn more.

Guest Column: Are There No Suicide Pods? Are There No Gas Chambers?

Dec 18, 2025John StonestreetLifeAssisted Suicide, Life, Pro-life, Sanctity of Human Life, Suicide

In a striking scene in Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, Ebenezer Scrooge asks two men raising money for the poor, “Are there no prisons? … And the Union workhouses? … Are they still in operation?” When the charity supporters reply that many would rather die than go to such places, Scrooge replied, “If they would rather die … they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population.” Later in the story, Scrooge is reminded of his dehumanizing words and is ashamed.

Recently, in real life Britain, Lord Falconer of Thoroton suggested to the British House of Lords that the poor might be better off dead:

Where the reason that you want an assisted death is because in your mind you are influenced by your circumstances, for example, because you are poor—should you be barred from having an assisted death because of your poverty? In my view not.

In Britain’s nationalized healthcare system, the cost of the procedure for the poor is not an issue. Rather, Lord Falconer seems to be suggesting that the poor should have the “right to die” if they are ashamed of being poor. Poverty, in this view, is a fate worse than death.

Most likely, Lord Falconer thinks his is an appeal to charity, like the charity workers in A Christmas Carol. In reality, his advice is indistinguishable from Scrooge. He might as well have asked, “Are there no euthanasia clinics? And, the gas chambers, are they still in operation? If they would rather die than be poor, then they had better do it.”

Now, Lord Falconer is not suggesting, at least not yet, that the state should round up the poor for suicide pods, though suicide pods are a real thing. However, he is suggesting that “being poor” should be added to the ever-growing list of things that make life not worth living. A few years ago, when advocates argued for death in Canada and Colorado, they argued that this was the compassionate choice for those with terminal, painful diseases and would die shortly. Why prolong their suffering?

But there is no slope more slippery than this one. In both Canada and Colorado, what gets someone approved for the death list has grown. In Colorado, severe eating disorders qualify. In The Netherlands, an early adopter nation of assisted death, euthanasia has been extended to sick children. In 2022, a Belgian woman who survived a terrorist attack was put to death to save her from stress. Ironically, the terrorists were not killed for their crimes.

In Canada, “medical assistance in dying,” or MAiD, is now the fifth leading cause of death. In 2016, the Canadian government insisted that only those facing “imminent death” would be eligible. By 2023, this grew to include patients struggling with mental illness and drug addiction. Last year, a Canadian man complained that his PTSD would not qualify him to take advantage of death. In another case a few weeks later, a young woman was granted the right to die for autism. The judge ruled that not providing MAiD in her case would cause “irreparable harm,” as if death for some is less harmful than living.

What other trials of life will be deemed suffering? A bad break-up? Not getting a wanted job? Just because? We once condemned the Nazis for whom and why they killed. Now, we’ve adopted their rhetoric.

Every person is made in the image of God and has infinite dignity and worth. Not just the healthy, and not just the wealthy. Human value isn’t lessened by pain, disease or, Lord Falconer, poverty.

The Church’s task in this moment is clear. We affirm life. We defend the vulnerable. We reject utilitarian thinking about human value. As Stanley Hauerwas said, “In a hundred years, if Christians are people identified as those who do not kill their children or their elderly, we will have been doing something right.”