The head of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) says the agency remains committed to \u201cexpeditiously\u201d carrying out a scientific review of marijuana as part of President Joe Biden\u2019s scheduling directive last year\u2014but he\u2019s making clear that the final decision is up to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).<\/p>\n
Bipartisan members of the Congressional Cannabis Caucus, as well as Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), led a letter to Biden in December, imploring the administration to take a clear position on federal marijuana descheduling<\/a>. HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra was copied on that letter and sent a response on Tuesday that was obtained by Marijuana Moment.<\/p>\n \u201cThank you for your letter to President Biden regarding the scheduling of marijuana. We appreciate your continued interest in this topic,\u201d Becerra said.<\/p>\n Rather than address the main request from the lawmakers for the administration to \u201crecognize the merits of full descheduling,\u201d however, the top federal health official simply reiterated the department\u2019s role in carrying out cannabis scheduling review.<\/p>\n \u201cConsistent with the President\u2019s direction, the Department of Health and Human Services (the Department) has initiated an administrative process to expeditiously review how marijuana is scheduled under federal law,\u201d it says.<\/p>\n \u201cIn accordance with the process set forth in the Controlled Substances Act (CSA), the Department conducts a scientific and medical evaluation of a drug or substance and submits that evaluation, along with scheduling recommendations, which are binding as to scientific and medical matters, to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) for a final scheduling determination<\/p>\n Consideration of the factors specified in the CSA ultimately leads DEA to make findings related to a drug\u2019s or substance\u2019s relative abuse potential, safety, medical uses, and dependence liability, and to make a scheduling decision in accordance with those findings.\u201d<\/p>\n Becerra\u2019s response echoed a key point that Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Principal Deputy Commissioner Janet Woodcock made in October, shortly after Biden issued the directive, as well as a mass pardon for people who\u2019ve committed federal marijuana possession offenses.<\/p>\n That is, FDA under HHS will conduct the review\u2014and the findings from that review are binding<\/em>, but only insofar as the science is concerned. Because scheduling decisions are covered by the CSA, however, DEA makes the final call. And DEA could ultimately decide to keep marijuana is Schedule I.<\/p>\n FDA\u2019s Woodcock similarly said that DEA \u201chas the final word\u201d<\/a> on any potential scheduling decision following their review.<\/p>\n The letter from Becerra contributes little to the public\u2019s understanding of how far along the department is in its review or how it is defining \u201cexpeditiously,\u201d a word that\u2019s been frequently utilized by the relevant agencies since the president made the directive.<\/p>\n The HHS secretary\u2019s official Twitter account posted a link to a Marijuana Moment story<\/a> about the president\u2019s scheduling action at exactly 4:20pm ET on December 5, seemingly playing into the symbolic number in cannabis culture. (It wasn\u2019t the first time that account shared marijuana news at that time.)<\/p>\n But while it\u2019s been made clear that agencies are working to fulfill the president\u2019s request, questions about the timing of the final recommendations or scheduling decision remain. Marijuana Moment reached out to HHS on Wednesday for comment on the timing of the review process, but a representative was not immediately available.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Cannabis Caucus co-chair Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR), who led the December letter to Biden alongside Warren, is now circulating a letter<\/a>, asking fellow lawmakers to join him in demanding transparency from the Biden administration with respect to the rationale for whatever scheduling decisions are made following this review process.<\/p>\n U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said at a Senate hearing last week that DOJ is \u201cstill working on a marijuana policy\u201d<\/a> while awaiting the results of the scientific review from health agencies.<\/p>\n Biden, for his part, has routinely touted his cannabis pardons and scheduling directive in the months since October, including most recently at an event commemorating the end of Black History Month<\/a>.<\/p>\n Read the text<\/a> of the HHS secretary\u2019s letter on marijuana scheduling below:\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n Washington Senate Approves Scaled-Down Psilocybin Bill To Prepare State For Future Psychedelic Services<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n The post Top Federal Health Official Tells Lawmakers Marijuana Scheduling Review Is Ongoing, But DEA Makes Final Call<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
The head of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) says the agency remains committed to \u201cexpeditiously\u201d carrying out a scientific review of marijuana as part of President Joe Biden\u2019s scheduling directive last year\u2014but he\u2019s making clear that the final decision is up to the Drug Enforcement AdministrationContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":458,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18,81],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62460"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/458"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62460"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62460\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":62461,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62460\/revisions\/62461"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62460"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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\nRead More: Top Federal Health Official Tells Lawmakers Marijuana Scheduling Review Is Ongoing, But DEA Makes Final Call<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"