The much-anticipated hearings on the proposed rulemaking to reschedule cannabis, which were scheduled to begin on January 21, have been postponed for at least three months as a result of an appeal granted by DEA Administrative Law Judge John Mulrooney.
Vicente partner Shawn Hauser told Law360 in a recent article, “It appears that there is compelling evidence that DEA may be trying to fix this hearing to ensure that marijuana remains in Schedule I or II, which is certainly on brand for DEA.”
Rescheduling cannabis has been a top priority for marijuana patients, physicians, businesses and consumers over the last couple of years. Starting with President Biden’s historic statement on October 6, 2022, the former administration directed Health and Human Services to review marijuana’s status as a Schedule I drug. This unprecedented process has been shaped by a unique and expeditious administrative process with political pressures, a hostile DEA, legal challenges, and the transition to a new administration.
If marijuana is rescheduled from Schedule I to Schedule III under the CSA, there are some major implications for patients, the medical community, the cannabis industry, and society as a whole. For more on that subject, read “4 Major Implications of Cannabis Moving to Schedule III.”
With many factors at play informing the potential timeline, including political appointments and an interlocutory appeal that has placed the hearing on hold, there is no precise date for if and when the hearings will resume and when a decision on rescheduling will be made. Still, analyzing the progress on rescheduling so far helps to provide insights into what will happen next. Let’s first examine a timeline of events.
Read the timeline at
