The Drug Enforcement Administration’s (DEA) hearing on the Biden administration’s marijuana rescheduling proposal is being delayed until 2025, Marijuana Moment has learned.
After DEA Administrator Anne Millgram signed off on over two dozen witnesses to participate in the hearing on Monday, Chief Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) John Mulrooney issued a preliminary order on Thursday signaling that the information provided on those set to testify was insufficient and requesting additional details and potential availability for a formal hearing in January or February 2025.
When the Justice Department proposed moving cannabis from Schedule I to Schedule III in March following a scientific review, advocates and stakeholders had hoped the rule would be finalized this year. And DEA did schedule the hearing for December 2—after the presidential election but before the January inauguration that will see an administrative changeup.
Now the latest order from Mulrooney clarifies that won’t be the case.
The reason being is that DEA’s list of hearing participants who were selected and sent to the ALJ’s office provided “no indication in the four corners of the document as to whether the ‘participants’ support or oppose the [notice of proposed rulemaking] or how the ‘participants’ satisfy the ‘interested person’ definition set forth in the regulations,” the judge’s order says.
“Indeed, the [Participant Letter] contains only a list of persons and organizations accompanied by one or more email addresses, without the benefit of notices of appearance, addresses, or even phone numbers,” it says.
The order from the DEA ALJ says that selected participants must provide such details by November 12. DEA is mandated to provide “its counsel(s) of record who will be appearing in these proceedings, as well as any known conflicts of interest that may require disclosure” on the same date.
Hellbound and Down 