The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) says the marijuana rescheduling appeal process “remains pending” despite President Donald Trump’s recent executive order directing the attorney general to finish the job “in the most expeditious manner.”
DEA and reform proponents on Monday submitted a joint status report on an interlocutory appeal that concerns allegations of agency bias and improper communications with anti-rescheduling parties during the rescheduling review process.
“To date, Movants’ interlocutory appeal to the Administrator regarding their Motion to Reconsider remains pending with the Administrator,” DEA said. “No briefing schedule has been set.”
It’s up to the agency to set the briefing schedule. But nearly a year after the appeal was accepted by a former administrative law judge, DEA is again delaying the process. This is the fourth joint status report, with largely identical language, that the parties filed pursuant to the administrative court’s order.
DEA Administrator Terrance Cole told senators during a confirmation hearing last year that examining the cannabis rescheduling proposal would be “one of my first priorities.”
This latest filing comes just weeks after Trump signed an executive order calling on Attorney General Pam Bondi to expeditiously finalize a rule to move cannabis from Schedule I to Schedule III of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA).
Meanwhile, a leading marijuana prohibitionist group says it’s retained the legal services of Trump’s former attorney general, Bill Barr, to sue to reverse federal marijuana rescheduling if and when the pending rule is finalized. And they’ll also be filing a petition through the administrative process to keep cannabis strictly prohibited.
Moving cannabis to Schedule III wouldn’t legalize marijuana, but it would formally recognize the plant’s medical value, allow marijuana businesses to take federal tax deductions and remove certain research barriers.
A recent report from the Congressional Research Service (CRS) noted that DOJ could in theory decline to enact rescheduling, or start the review process all over again, for example.
Read the full article at Marijuana Movement
