Marijuana Moment reports the hearings have been kicked down the road..
The first hearings on the Biden administration’s marijuana rescheduling proposal that were set for next week have now been canceled following a legal challenge from pro-reform witnesses, a Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) judge has ruled.
While DEA Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) John Mulrooney rejected key arguments from rescheduling proponents about how alleged improper communications and witness selection decisions by DEA Administrator Anne Milgram warranted the agency’s removal from the process altogether, he ultimately granted a request for leave to file an interlocutory appeal—canceling the scheduled January 21 merit-based hearing and staying the proceedings for at least three months.
And although Mulrooney cited statutory restrictions on his office’s ability to take actions such as removing DEA as the “proponent” of the proposal to move marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule III of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA), he sharply criticized the agency over various procedural missteps that he argued contributed to a delay of the rulemaking, potentially indefinitely as a new administration is set to come into office next week.
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Here’s the MJ Biz take
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President-elect Donald Trump’s choice to lead the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration will wield a heavier hand than expected over the ongoing marijuana rescheduling saga after the agency’s chief administrative law judge canceled hearings scheduled for next week. DEA Chief Administrative Law Judge John Mulrooney issued a ruling late Monday that included the cancellation of a hearing scheduled for Jan. 21 pending the outcome of a yet-to-be-filed “interlocutory appeal” to the agency’s eventual administrator. Mulrooney’s ruling came in response to a Jan. 6 request from two pro-rescheduling “designated participants” that DEA Administrator Anne Milgram and her agency be removed from the proceedings for demonstrating what they argue is bias. In their filing, the participants – Village Farms International, a Florida-based agricultural firm that produces cannabis in Canada under a federal license there, and Texas-based Hemp for Victory – requested that Mulrooney allow them to file an appeal “to the Administrator” should Mulrooney refuse to take action. And that’s what Mulrooney did, according to a copy of the ruling obtained by MJBizDaily. Read story > |
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Marijuana rescheduling process paused indefinitely after judge cancels hearing
