Former President Joe Biden\u2019s drug czar says the process to reschedule marijuana as initiated under the last administration may have been compromised by officials with the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), which was supposed to be defending the proposed policy change.<\/p>\n
At the same time, a pro-legalization former\u00a0 OP congressman allied with President Donald Trump is raising questions about the sincerity of the current president\u2019s endorsement of rescheduling on the campaign trail.<\/p>\n
About four months into Trump\u2019s second term, there has still been no movement on the pending plan to move cannabis from Schedule I to Schedule III of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA), leaving advocates and stakeholders frustrated both by the current inaction but also the Biden administration\u2019s failure to get the job done before the transition.<\/p>\n
According to\u00a0former White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) Director Rahul Gupta, that may have been due to deliberate resistance from within DEA\u2014a suspicion shared widely among supporters of the reform, including those involved in an administrative hearing that\u2019s been stalled for months, with no clear indication it will proceed any time soon.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe got stuck moving at the slow speed of government, which was also marred, potentially, by some opposing it from within,\u201d Gupta told The New York Times as part of a broader story examining the rescheduling effort.<\/p>\n
The article also features interviews with a former senior DEA agent and former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), who notably suggested that Trump\u2019s endorsement of a Schedule III reclassification on the campaign trail was essentially an attempt to shore up support among young voters rather than a sincere reflection of his personal views about cannabis.<\/p>\n
As far as speculation about DEA\u2019s role in the protracted process goes, there are several factors that have led many to conclude the agency\u2019s leadership internally opposed the proposal, including the fact that there was a break in precedent when then-Attorney General Merrick Garland signed off on it after the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) made the recommendation. Historically, the DEA administrator approves drug scheduling proposals.<\/p>\n
DEA had also previously raised a series of questions about the scientific review that served as the basis of its recommendation that some interpreted to mean it disagreed about the assessments about marijuana\u2019s medical value and relatively low abuse potential, even though the agency technically serves as the \u201cproponent\u201d of the rule in since-stalled administrative hearings. Others have alleged DEA had improper communication with prohibitionist witnesses in the lead-up to the proceedings.<\/p>\n
What happens next in the process is uncertain, especially ahead of the potential Senate confirmation of Trump\u2019s pick to lead DEA, Terrance Cole, who has declined to say whether he supports the proposal but\u00a0has\u00a0previously voiced concerns about the dangers of marijuana<\/a> and linked its use to higher suicide risk among youth.<\/p>\n Trump, for his part, has not publicly weighed in on cannabis reform since taking office, and the White House did not include rescheduling in a recently released list of drug policy priorities for the administration.<\/p>\n Anthony Coulson, who retired from DEA in 2010 but remains close with former colleagues, told<\/a> The Times he ultimately doesn\u2019t see the proposal moving ahead under the Trump administration. And he also suggested DEA deliberately delayed the administrative process in an attempt to quash it.<\/p>\n \u201cCannabis reform appears to be all but dead in this administration,\u201d Coulson said. \u201cTo use a Trump term, it was rigged not to succeed.\u201d<\/p>\n Other former DEA and HHS officials have separately expressed their sense that, if rescheduling is going to happen, the president will need to proactively demand its completion<\/a>.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Gaetz\u2014a pro-legalization former GOP congressman who Trump first tapped for attorney general but withdrew from consideration\u2014made somewhat surprising comments about the president\u2019s position on rescheduling, suggesting that his endorsement of the reform while campaigning last year may have been a politically motivated move to try and win over more young voters but that he personally has \u201ca deep personal aversion to anything that dulls the senses.\u201d<\/p>\n While Trump\u2019s position on the issue has evolved over the years, including several past comments supportive of medical cannabis, Gaetz said the president is still \u201ctotally intolerant\u201d to any reform that\u00a0\u201che believes will increase drug use.\u201d<\/p>\n That represents a significant shift in rhetoric Gaetz used in an op-ed in March, when he predicted that \u201cmeaningful\u201d marijuana reform is \u201con the horizon\u201d under the Trump administration<\/a> and praised the president\u2019s \u201cleadership\u201d in supporting rescheduling.<\/p>\n \u201cBy backing this move, [Trump] stands up for patients, small businesses and especially our veterans. It is crucial that our federal agencies follow through on this effort and finally align federal cannabis policy with the will of the American people,\u201d he said at the time.<\/p>\n Nonetheless, the fate of rescheduling remains murky under the Trump administration, and a Senate panel is positioned to advance the nomination of the president\u2019s DEA pick as early as Thursday, which would add to the uncertainty. That said, Cole did tell the Senate Judiciary Committee last month that examining the rescheduling proposal will be \u201cone of my first priorities\u201d<\/a> if he gets the role, saying it\u2019s \u201ctime to move forward\u201d on the stalled process\u2014but without clarifying what end result he would like to see.<\/p>\n DEA recently\u00a0notified an agency judge that the proceedings are still on hold<\/a>\u2014with no future actions currently scheduled as the matter sits before the acting administrator.<\/p>\n Separately, last month, an activist who received a pardon for a marijuana-related conviction during Trump\u2019s first term\u00a0paid a visit to the White House, discussing future clemency options with the recently appointed \u201cpardon czar.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n A marijuana industry-backed political action committee (PAC) has also released a series of ads over recent weeks that have attacked Biden\u2019s cannabis policy record as well as the nation of Canada, promoting sometimes misleading claims about the last administration while\u00a0making the case that Trump can deliver on reform<\/a>.<\/p>\n Its latest ad accused former President Joe Biden and his DEA of\u00a0waging a \u201cdeep state war\u201d against medical cannabis patients<\/a>\u2014but without mentioning that the former president himself initiated the rescheduling process that marijuana companies want to see completed under Trump.<\/p>\n DEA Approves Church\u2019s Petition To Use Psychedelics In Religious Ceremonies Without The Need For A Lawsuit<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n The post Marijuana Rescheduling Blocked By Opposition \u2018From Within\u2019 DEA, Biden\u2019s Drug Czar Says<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Former President Joe Biden\u2019s drug czar says the process to reschedule marijuana as initiated under the last administration may have been compromised by officials with the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), which was supposed to be defending the proposed policy change. At the same time, a pro-legalization former\u00a0 OP congressman alliedContinue 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\/81295"}],"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=81295"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81295\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":81296,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81295\/revisions\/81296"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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\nRead More: Marijuana Rescheduling Blocked By Opposition \u2018From Within\u2019 DEA, Biden\u2019s Drug Czar Says<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"