D4DPR has actively engaged with the August 2023 HHS recommendation to reschedule cannabis and has requested to participate in the DEA hearing to reschedule cannabis.
The DEA has refused D4PDR’s request to participate in the hearing (the DEA has rejected similar requests from all other advocacy groups supporting rescheduling).
D4DPR thanks Attorney Austin Brumbaugh from the law firm Yetter Coleman LLP (D4DPR Board Member Matt Zorn’s firm), who filed a petition on our behalf for review in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit challenging the DEA’s participant selection process for this hearing.
We believe the DEA has set the stage for rejecting the rescheduling of cannabis.
Without an open hearing, including a knowledge of what organizations requested participation and the DEA's reasons for acceptance or refusal, the DEA is likely to be successful in continuing cannabis as a Schedule I drug. If our petition is successful, it may delay the hearing by several weeks, but we do not believe this will be consequential in the long run.
Below is a timeline of our legal efforts in this case:
Updates:
On January 13, 2024, Administrative Law Judge Mulrooney ordered the cancellation of the first hearings in the marijuana rescheduling process. Marijuana Moment covers many issues cited by Mulrooney that lead to this decision in the article "DEA Judge Cancels Marijuana Rescheduling Hearings Amid Legal Challenges, Pushing Back Reform For At Least Three Months."
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