Politics
Marijuana Activists Say They’re Being ‘Shut Out’ Of DEA’s Rescheduling Hearing That Features Only Legalization Opponents
A coalition of marijuana legalization activists gathered outside Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) headquarters on Monday ahead of the start of a hearing an agency judge is overseeing on the Trump administration’s proposal to reschedule cannabis—criticizing the fact that no supporters of reform were invited to participate and that the proceedings are not being livestreamed despite officials’ vows of “transparency.”
Among those who are excluded from the hearing are representatives from groups that have “spent decades advancing sensible cannabis policy,” former federal prisoners who “lived through the worst excesses of prohibition,” medical experts who “dedicated their careers to understanding cannabis and how it can help people” and legal cannabis business owners whose “futures will be shaped by whatever happens inside that hearing room, Kat Murti, executive director for Students for Sensible Drug Policy, said.
“Many of them asked to participate in today’s hearing. All of them were denied their expertise, their experiences, their voices, their lives,” she said. “None of that will be heard inside the DEA courtroom.”
“Instead, we are forced to hold this press conference on the sidewalk because the people most affected by federal cannabis policy have been shut out of the conversation, and the DEA has handpicked only those who want more criminalization, who feel we aren’t arresting enough people and that prohibition has not gone far enough to participate in their kangaroo court.”
DEA Administrator Terrance Cole invited only organizations and people who oppose marijuana reform to join the hearing as designated participants—telling supporters that they do not meet the definition of an “interested person” to participate because they are not “adversely affected or aggrieved by any rule or proposed rule issuable.”
The agency itself is serving the role of proponent of the proposal to move cannabis from Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) to Schedule III, and said in a filing last week that its witness list for the hearing includes a doctor who will provide testimony about how “medical marijuana provides a medical benefit to pain patients.”
Some advocates are skeptical, however, that DEA will effectively defend the reform given its long history of opposing changes to prohibitionist approaches to cannabis and other drugs.
Robert Rush of the Rights and Reason Project noted at Monday’s press conference that a prior hearing on the marijuana rescheduling proposal was canceled during the Biden administration amid litigation and accusations that DEA improperly colluded with opponents.
“We’re standing outside, and it’s only the DEA who are going to stand inside and claim that they’re going to advocate for” reform, he said. “We’ve witnessed what’s gone on for decades and decades with the DEA, and how they’ve treated cannabis—but more importantly, how they’ve treated the people who use cannabis—and we’re supposed to believe that the DEA will advocate, and they will fight for adult use to move off a Schedule I, and they’re going to represent the people here?”
“I just don’t think it’s a transparent process,” Rush said. “I don’t think it’s legit, and I think people should really be outraged about the way this process has proceeded.”
Last week, Marijuana Moment sent requests to DEA Chief Administrative Law Judge Derek Julius and to Cole, the DEA administrator, requesting they reverse a decision to prohibit the public from tuning into the cannabis hearing via livestream. A congressman and other journalists later joint in that request.
On Friday, a DEA public affairs official told Marijuana Moment’s attorney, Joseph A. Bondy, that the agency “is in receipt of your inquiry regarding monitoring the marijuana rescheduling hearing in real-time.”
“The Court determined in the Preliminary Order that the hearing will not be televised, livestreamed, or broadcasted in any way,” they said. “Consistent with all federal proceedings, the courtroom is open to the public and media for in-person attendance as space allows. Additionally, given national public interest in these proceedings and DEA’s commitment to transparency, a finalized and corrected transcript will be published on DEA.gov following the conclusion of the proceedings.”
A transcript after the fact, however, would not help the public follow the proceedings as they unfold.
Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN) said in his letter to DEA’s Cole on Friday that the marijuana rescheduling process that is underway is “historic.”
“I write to request that the hearings be made accessible to the public in real time,” Cohen wrote. “Live streaming technologies have become ubiquitous and a common way Americans interact with the government. In late 2024, when undertaking a similar effort, your agency allowed the proceedings to be livestreamed because of ‘the public interest in this matter’ and followed from your agency’s ‘commitment to conducting a transparent proceeding.’
“I do not see any reason why that rationale wouldn’t hold today, especially regarding such an important and impactful matter,” the congressman wrote. “I have long been an advocate for transparency in court room processes and believe this is a rare opportunity to inform the public about rulemaking and administrative adjudication.”
Morgan Fox, political director for the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), noted at Monday’s event that his group filed the first petition to reschedule cannabis more than 50 years ago.
“Since 1972 when NORML filed the first cannabis rescheduling petition, and over the course of multiple subsequent petitions and years of litigation, the DEA has made it clear that it is vehemently opposed to removing cannabis from Schedule I and will fight to keep it there,” he said. “This hearing is no different, but the DEA is now eschewing any pretense of due process or respect for evidence by only selecting witnesses that share its bias, despite the clear scientific research in support of rescheduling and broadly accepted medical use.”
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Rescheduling opponents that are participating in the hearing filed statements last week previewing the anti-marijuana arguments they intend to make during the proceedings.
The hearing is set to conclude no later than July 15.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche in April issued an order that immediately reclassified state-licensed medical cannabis, as well as marijuana products approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) from Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) to Schedule III.
Under a separate order the acting attorney general signed, the upcoming hearing will consider more comprehensively moving marijuana to Schedule III.
A prior hearing process on the marijuana rescheduling process that was initiated by the Biden administration stalled last year amid litigation over alleged improper communications and witness selection.
The current marijuana rescheduling process is being challenged with several lawsuits that have been consolidated by a federal appeals court. Those pieces of litigation against the cannabis reform have been filed by state attorneys general, marijuana legalization opponents and a cannabis-focused biopharmaceutical corporation.
Meanwhile, the already-enacted rescheduling of state-licensed medical cannabis is already having broad impacts.
The Congressional Research Service published a report on the current cannabis rescheduling move explaining that certified patients who possess medical marijuana from state-licensed dispensaries now have certain protections under Schedule III. “The order appears to authorize end users to possess marijuana for medical use without a CSA-compliant prescription,” it says.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) has posted a draft update to a gun purchase form to acknowledge the federally legal status of medical marijuana under rescheduling. The revised section in question notably says that only “use or possession of marijuana for recreational purposes” is federally prohibited, leaving out the prior form’s mention of medical cannabis.
The U.S. Department of the Treasury and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) said they plan to issue new tax guidance for the marijuana industry following rescheduling. The reform will benefit state-licensed marijuana businesses by allowing them to take federal tax deductions they’re currently barred from under an IRS code known as 280E that doesn’t apply to Schedule III substances.
Even DEA, which has long opposed cannabis legalization and was accused of stalling the rescheduling process initiative by the Biden administration, has launched a registration process for state-legal marijuana businesses to take advantage of federal benefits that come with the reform.
The Department of Transportation, on the other hand, issued guidance saying that use of state-legal medical cannabis is still no excuse for a positive drug test by truck drivers, pilots and other safety-sensitive workers.
A congressional committee recently voted to block federal officials from taking further steps to carry out cannabis rescheduling, though bipartisan lawmakers told Marijuana Moment they don’t believe that provision will be enacted into law.
Photo courtesy of Carlos Gracia.
