Cannabis stocks rally on Wall Street Journal report that Trump is weighing drug reclassification

A worker inspects cannabis plants inside the grow room at the Aphria Inc

The Advisors Pure U.S

Despite Monday's rally, many of these stocks are far below their all-time highs.The gains ed a report in the Wall Street Journal late Friday, citing people familiar with White House thinking, that Trump was weighing whether to move marijuana to a less-dangerous drug classification

Trump d his consideration of the matter during a fundraiser at his New Jersey golf earlier this month, the people said."We're looking at reclassification," Trump told reporters Monday during a press conference to announce the deployment of the National Guard to Washington, D.C. "We'll make a determination ... over the next few weeks.""It's a very complicated subject," he added.Under federal law, cannabis is currently classified as a Schedule I drug in a group that also includes heroin and cocaine

Previously, reclassification discussions have centered on moving the drug to Schedule III, a class that includes steroids and Tylenol with codeine.Reclassification would allow marijuana companies to fall under different tax regulations and encourage investment interest, among other benefits.Tilray CEO Irwin Simon told CNBC he expects the cess of reclassification to take a year

Trump discussing the matter and saying he plans to make a decision in the coming weeks is cause for optimism in the industry, Simon said. "Trump gets things done," Simon said. "He wouldn't be talking it ... if he's not going to get something done."Trump's backing can brighten the outlook, but nically he cannot reclassify the drug alone

The Controlled Substances Act places that authority under the Attorney General, who has historically delegated it further to the administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration.Still, a move from Schedule 1 to Schedule 3 would be "a gamechanger" for the roughly $80 billion market, said Tim Seymour, chief at Seymour Asset Management, on CNBC's "Worldwide Exchange" on Monday

He noted that such a change has seemingly bipartisan support."It does not mean that it won't be a complicated trade," Seymour said. "But it does mean that you're now well ahead of a lot of institutional capital if you are, in fact, into this sector."