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A Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) judge has ordered the agency to respond to new allegations that it opposes the Biden administration\u2019s marijuana rescheduling proposal<\/a> it is supposed to be defending and that it had additional improper communications with opponents of the reform.<\/p>\n Just one day after a motion outlining the allegations was filed by several witnesses set to participate in hearings that begin later this month, DEA Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) John Mulrooney issued a briefing order on Tuesday mandating that the agency reply by next week.<\/p>\n Village Farms International, Hemp for Victory, the Connecticut\u00a0Office of the Cannabis Ombudsman, Ellen Brown and My Doc App are ultimately asking the judge to remove DEA as the proponent of the proposed rule to move marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule III of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA).<\/p>\n \u201cThe Motion for Reconsideration requests a series of relief related to alleged improper ex parte communications between the Agency and other actors,\u201d Mulrooney said<\/a>. \u201cThe Government is herein ORDERED<\/strong> to file a response to the Motion to Reconsider\u201d by January 13.<\/p>\n Part of the pro-rescheduling participants\u2019 motion addresses a new declaration submitted to the ALJ by a DEA official last week, wherein the agency pharmacologist seemed to question the basis of the reclassification proposal by echoing \u201canti-rescheduling talking points in attempting to show that marijuana has a high abuse potential and no currently accepted medical use,\u201d the cannabis groups said in their latest motion.<\/p>\n It says DEA based its analysis on a legal test that was previously rejected by the Justice Department\u2019s Office of Legal Counsel (OLC), and the agency\u2019s \u201cdefiance of OLC\u2019s binding opinion is stunning proof of its open hostility to the Proposed Rule.\u201d<\/p>\n Specifically, when assessing whether marijuana has currently accepted medical value, DEA used a five-factor review that OLC had described as \u201cimpermissibly narrow,\u201d running counter to the two-factor review standard applied by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to reach conclusion to recommend rescheduling.<\/p>\n What\u2019s more, the attorneys said the timing of the DEA\u2019s declaration filing is further evidence that DEA opposes the policy change, noting that the agency was statutorily required to submit any relevant data on the proposed rule before HHS carried out its scientific review and the rulemaking process was formally initiated.<\/p>\n The motion then alleges that there\u2019s \u201cadditional damning evidence of ex parte and undisclosed communications has emerged,\u201d with DEA failing to disclose nearly 100 requests to participate in the upcoming hearings, as well as \u201ccommunication and coordination with at least one anti-rescheduling DP, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation.\u201d<\/p>\n One of the previously undisclosed requests to participate in the hearing came from the state of Colorado, which was denied by DEA despite the state\u2019s extensive background in regulating cannabis. Yet the attorney general of Nebraska was permitted to serve as an anti-rescheduling witness.<\/p>\n \u201cThis new evidence confirms that DEA has worked to stack the deck against the Proposed Rule by favoring anti-rescheduling parties in its selection of hearing participants and obstructing a balanced and thoughtful process based on science and evidence,\u201d the filing says.<\/p>\n The DEA judge rejected the cannabis groups\u2019 earlier request to remove the agency as the proponent of the rescheduling rule<\/a>, but he did seem to put weight into separate allegations that it engaged in unlawful communication with another DP, the prohibitionist group Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM).<\/p>\n Relatedly, a federal judge recently dismissed a\u00a0lawsuit seeking to compel DEA to turn over its communications<\/a> with the anti-cannabis organization.<\/p>\n Additionally, the latest motion asserts that recently published documents reveal that DEA lists another anti-drug group that\u2019s participating in the hearing\u2014Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America (CADCA)\u2014\u201das a resource for information on marijuana.\u201d<\/p>\n Meanwhile, the DEA ALJ\u00a0recently denied a cannabis research company\u2019s request<\/a>\u00a0to allow it to\u00a0add a young medical marijuana patient and advocate as a witness in the upcoming rescheduling hearing.<\/p>\n Mulrooney separately said last month that\u00a0DEA made a critical \u201cblunder\u201d in its effort to issue subpoenas<\/a>\u00a0to force Food and Drug Administration (FDA) officials to testify in rescheduling process\u2014but he allowed the agency to fix the error and ultimately granted the request.<\/p>\n Also, one of the nation\u2019s leading marijuana industry associations asked the judge to clarify whether it will be\u00a0afforded the opportunity to cross-examine DEA during the upcoming hearings<\/a>\u00a0on the cannabis rescheduling proposal.<\/p>\n Further, a coalition of health professionals that advocates for cannabis reform recently asked that the\u00a0DEA judge halt future marijuana rescheduling hearings<\/a>\u00a0until a federal court is able to address a series of allegations they\u2019re raising about the agency\u2019s witness selection process.<\/p>\n That came on the same day the Mulrooney issued a ruling that laid out\u00a0the timeline for merit-based hearings on the rescheduling proposal<\/a>.<\/p>\n Doctors for Drug Policy Reform (D4DPR) requested that the DEA judge stay the hearings\u2014which are currently set to commence on January 21\u2014pending a review from the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Circuit. A separate organization that was also denied participation, Veterans Action Council (VAC),\u00a0similarly filed a petition with the same court last month to request a review<\/a>\u00a0of the agency\u2019s decision to exclude it from the proceedings.<\/p>\n The rescheduling proceedings have generated significant public interest. While moving marijuana to Schedule III wouldn\u2019t federally legalize it, the reform would free up licensed cannabis businesses to take federal tax deductions and remove certain research barriers.<\/p>\n \u2014 In a prehearing statement submitted in November,\u00a0DEA previewed the testimony its two agency witnesses plan to provide<\/a>\u00a0at the upcoming hearing\u2014without clarifying where it stands on the rescheduling proposal.<\/p>\n While the initial preliminary hearing happened last week, the merit-based proceedings were delayed until at least early 2025 after Mulrooney notified DEA that it provided insufficient information about\u00a0the 25 selected witnesses that DEA Administrator Anne Milgram submitted<\/a>.<\/p>\n Separately, the DEA judge has also\u00a0denied a request from a cannabis and psychedelics researcher<\/a>\u00a0to postpone the upcoming rescheduling hearing over the agency\u2019s alleged \u201cimproper blocking\u201d of witnesses, while arguing that the process should be halted at least until President-elect Donald Trump\u2019s administration comes into power so it can review the rulemaking.<\/p>\n Mulrooney also\u00a0rejected a veterans group\u2019s petition to participate in the rescheduling hearing<\/a>, which the organization called a \u201ctravesty of justice\u201d that excludes key voices that would be affected by the potential policy change. That group has\u00a0asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to intervene<\/a>\u00a0on its behalf.<\/p>\n For what it\u2019s worth, Vice President Kamala Harris said recently that part of the reason for the delay in the administration\u2019s marijuana rescheduling effort is\u00a0federal bureaucracy that \u201cslows things down,\u201d including at DEA.<\/a><\/p>\n In March, Harris also expressed some frustration with the bureaucratic process of rescheduling marijuana, prior to DOJ\u2019s formal recommendation,\u00a0calling on DEA to expediently finish the job<\/a>.<\/p>\n While the Biden\u2013Harris administration facilitated the review that led to the DOJ rescheduling proposal, Trump has also voiced support for the reform.<\/p>\n Federal Court Reaffirms That Ban On Gun Ownership For People Who Occasionally Use Marijuana Is \u2018Unconstitutional\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n \u00a0<\/p>\n The post DEA Judge Orders Agency To Respond To New Allegations It Opposes Marijuana Rescheduling And Improperly Conspired With Prohibitionists<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
A Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) judge has ordered the agency to respond to new allegations that it opposes the Biden administration\u2019s marijuana rescheduling proposal it is supposed to be defending and that it had additional improper communications with opponents of the reform. Just one day after a motion outlining theContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":458,"featured_media":79644,"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\/79643"}],"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=79643"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79643\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":79645,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79643\/revisions\/79645"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/79644"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79643"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79643"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\nRead More: DEA Judge Orders Agency To Respond To New Allegations It Opposes Marijuana Rescheduling And Improperly Conspired With Prohibitionists<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"