Politics
Wyoming Official Issues ‘Objection’ To Rescheduling Marijuana Under State Law Following Trump’s Federal Move
A top Wyoming state official has filed a formal objection to rescheduling marijuana under state law, a reform that would otherwise be automatically triggered by the Trump administration’s move to reclassify cannabis on the federal level.
“The Wyoming Legislature has not legalized medical marijuana, has not approved a state licensed medical marijuana regulatory scheme, or approved of recognizing any other state’s medical marijuana issued licenses,” Attorney General Keith Kautz (R) said. “Therefore, placing marijuana subject to a state medical marijuana license in Schedule III of the Wyoming Controlled Substances Act is inconsistent with the police powers exercised to date by the Wyoming Legislature.”
“The question of whether to remove any type of marijuana from Schedule I of the Wyoming Controlled Substances Act is for the Wyoming Legislature and should not be done through the administrative rule making process,” he said.
The legislature, however, previously enacted a law that says “if any substance is designated, rescheduled, or deleted as a controlled substance under federal law,” the commissioner of drugs and substances control “shall control the substance under this act in the same manner as federal law” within 30 days.
Under state law, the attorney general serves as the commissioner of drugs and substances control and can formally object to the automatic state rescheduling to prevent it from taking place, subject to a public hearing allowing “all interested parties an opportunity to be heard.”
The hearing on cannabis that is being triggered by the attorney general’s objection will be held on June 18 at the Wyoming State Capitol.
“All marijuana products currently approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration are already scheduled consistent with the federal Controlled Substances Act,” Kautz said in his announcement, which was published on May 27.
“Dronabinol, which contains synthetic delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol, is listed in Schedule III of the Wyoming Controlled Substances Act; Cesamet, which contains a synthetic compound chemically similar to tetrahydrocannabinol, is listed in Schedule II of the Wyoming Controlled Substances Act; and Epidiolex, which contains pure cannabidiol, was removed from control in 2020.”
Under an order issued by U.S. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche in April, marijuana products regulated by a state medical cannabis license immediately moved from Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) to Schedule III, as did any marijuana products that are approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
An administrative hearing scheduled for this month will consider broader cannabis rescheduling, including for recreational products.
In Wyoming, activists have sough unsuccessfully to put initiatives to legalize medical cannabis and decriminalize marijuana possession on the ballot.
State lawmakers have also considered legislation on the issue, but Wyoming remains one of only a handful of states without any legal medical marijuana access.
In 2022 the Wyoming House speaker filed a bipartisan decriminalization bill to remove criminal penalties for possessing small amounts of cannabis and replace the state’s current misdemeanor charge with a $100 fine. But that legislation did not receive a vote despite support from top GOP lawmakers.
A bill to legalize and regulate cannabis for adult use in Wyoming advanced out of a House committee in 2021, but it did not move further by the end of that session.
A poll released in 2020 found that 54 percent of Wyoming residents supported allowing adults in the state “to legally possess marijuana for personal use.”
Meanwhile, other states that also don’t have comprehensive medical cannabis programs are also grappling with changes to state marijuana laws that could be trigged by the federal rescheduling action.
A GOP senator in South Carolina, for example, said that “medical marijuana is now legal” in the state under a trigger law.
Last month, the governing body of the Alabama Department of Public Health voted to object to federal rescheduling of marijuana after health officials said they need more time to determine how to implement a change on the state level.
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee (R), meanwhile, signed legislation this session to block an automatic review that could have potentially legalized medical marijuana under state law following the federal rescheduling of the drug.
