Politics
GOP Senator Demands Answers On ‘Rush’ To Reschedule Marijuana From Top Biden Administration Officials
A GOP senator is raising concerns about the Biden administration’s justification for recommending marijuana rescheduling—demanding answers to questions from federal agencies about how they arrived at that decision in what he described as a rushed and unconventional administrative process.
In a pair of letters sent to Attorney General Merrick Garland and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra on Monday, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) stressed that he’s supported expanding research into the medical potential of cannabis, having sponsored a bipartisan bill to streamline such studies that President Joe Biden signed into law in late 2022. But he voiced skepticism over how the federal agencies determined that marijuana should be federally reclassified.
“Health policy should be based on sound scientific data, which is why I write raising concerns the Justice Department bypassed traditional safeguards in its haste to reschedule marijuana,” he wrote to Garland, adding that he’d like clarification on why the proposal to move cannabis from Schedule I to Schedule III of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) advanced without addressing Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) requests for additional information.
“In fact, the DEA requested additional scientific input to determine if marijuana has an accepted medical use, but Justice Department attorneys deemed the request ‘impermissibly narrow,'” Grassley said. “After apparently rejecting DEA’s concerns, you signed the [Notice of Proposed Rulemaking] instead of the DEA Administrator. This is a break from tradition.”
“In a rush to reschedule, it appears the Justice Department disregarded at least ten additional categories of information relevant to—but missing from—the Justice Department’s rescheduling determination,” he said, listing those categories that were noted on the cannabis notice.
For example, DEA said prior to the proposed rulemaking that it would be beneficial to collect more data on the effects of differing dosages of cannabis, diversion from state markets, patterns of misuse and cannabis dependence would help inform its position on reclassifying marijuana.
“The Justice Department deprived the DEA and the public of key categories of information, including by ending its own practice of evaluating the hazards of marijuana,” Grassley argued, pointing out that a controversial annual federal report meant to assess how legalization in Colorado affected traffic safety and other issues was suspended under the Biden administration.
“Decisions to reschedule controlled substances should be well-reasoned and thoroughly vetted,” the letter said. The senator then listed questions and documents he’s asking Garland to provide by September 12. For example, he wants information about the reasoning the attorney general signed the rescheduling proposal, rather than the DEA administrator, and a copy of a memo from DOJ about the impacts of the reform.
In his separate letter to HHS, Grassley observed that the agency’s recent report on marijuana research barriers, as well as risks and benefits of cannabis, was submitted to relevant congressional stakeholders in June, six months after a deadline established under the enacted cannabis bill he sponsored. The report, which was distributed in August 2023, “seems at odds with its recommendation to reschedule marijuana,” he said.
For example, he argued that it “raises questions about HHS’s new two-part test for determining whether marijuana has a currently acceptable medical use.”
Also he said that, in its rescheduling proposal, “HHS concluded the risks to public health posed by marijuana are low despite the concerning statements about marijuana” in the separate report such as potential mental health and cardiovascular risks.
“Despite these gaps between HHS’s rescheduling recommendation and the MMCREA report, HHS began the MMCREA report by stating its ‘conclusions about therapeutic potential and adverse effects are consistent with those in the recommendation from HHS to the [DEA] regarding scheduling of botanical cannabis,’” the senator wrote. “HHS does not explain the basis for this opinion, and the opinion seems unsupported by the body of its report.”
“So that Congress can better understand HHS’s recommendation, please provide a response accounting for the apparent discrepancies between HHS’s rescheduling recommendation and its MMCREA report by September 12, 2024,” he said.
The letters were sent to the agencies about a week after top Democratic senators—including Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY)—sent a separate letter to Garland and DEA Administrator Anne Milgram urging the agencies to ”promptly finalize” the rule to reschedule marijuana.
A public comment period on the proposed rule closed last month, with more than 40,000 people weighing in on the modest reform. Initial analyses of the comments indicated that the vast majority were in favor of reclassifying cannabis or descheduling it altogether.
While rescheduling would remove certain research barriers and free up state-licensed cannabis business to take federal tax deductions under the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) code known as 280E, it would not federally legalize marijuana, as the Congressional Research Service (CRS) has made known in multiple recent reports.
Meanwhile, two additional congressional lawmakers have joined the ranks of GOP members who are challenging what they say is the “unusual” process that led the Biden administration to propose rescheduling marijuana, expressing concern about how the review was carried out and demanding answers.
Rep. Doug LaMalfa (R-CA) condemned the Biden administration’s push to reclassify marijuana, as well as legislative efforts to enact bipartisan cannabis banking reform, because he says the policy changes would “prop up this immoral industry” and give a “green light to the evil that comes from drug use.”
Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) also blasted the Biden administration over what he described as repeated refusals from federal agencies to brief Congress on its plans and justification for rescheduling marijuana, which he argues fuels speculation that the proposed policy change is politically motivated.
Similarly, 25 GOP congressional lawmakers sent a public comment letter last month opposing the administration’s planned rescheduling of marijuana, specifically alleging the government’s recommendation was based on politics rather than science.
At the Republican National Committee convention last month, multiple GOP lawmakers spoke with Marijuana Moment about their own views on how cannabis policy issues such as rescheduling could be impacted if former President Donald Trump wins the November election. They generally deferred to the nominee, but there were mixed opinions about what they would like to see happen.
Rep. Andy Harris (R-MD), for his part, said at the event that “I don’t care” whether rolling back the Biden administration’s marijuana rescheduling move under a potential Trump presidency would hurt the Republican party, because he feels more strongly that the modest reform would endanger public health.
Also, bipartisan congressional lawmakers are now seeking to remove a controversial section of a spending bill that would block the Justice Department from rescheduling marijuana—one of several cannabis- and psychedelics-related amendments to appropriations legislation that have been filed in recent days.
GOP senators have separately tried to block the administration from rescheduling cannabis as part of a standalone bill filed last September, but that proposal has not received a hearing or vote.
Meanwhile, in one recent public comment on the proposed rule, a group representing state-level cannabis regulators recently called on the Biden administration and DEA administrator to provide a clear explanation of how rescheduling marijuana would affect federal enforcement priorities and the U.S. government’s interaction with jurisdictions that regulate cannabis products.
Read the letters from Grassley to the DOJ and HHS heads on marijuana rescheduling below:
Photo courtesy of Chris Wallis // Side Pocket Images.
