The DEA has told several senators that the agency is following the necessary procedures in their marijuana rescheduling review, including a forthcoming “public comment period and a hearing”. These would only be necessary if the DEA actually decides to reschedule marijuana.
A group of 21 lawmakers from the US House and Senate recently sent a letter to the DEA urging them to “promptly” deschedule marijuana. Several of the lawmakers, including Senator Elizbeth Warren, say they received a letter from the DEA earlier this month saying that the agency will “follow the procedures that Congress set forth in the Controlled Substances Act, including an opportunity for a public comment period and a hearing.”
These comments may seem pretty straightforward, but they’re a potential window into what the DEA has planned in the coming weeks and months.
A public comment period and hearing would not be necessary if the DEA decides to retain marijuana as a Schedule I drug. This indicates that the agency plans to either rescheduling marijuana to Schedule III — as recommended by the Department of Health and Human Services — or descheduling it entirely.
If the DEA does decide to reschedule or deschedule marijuana, the public would be given a 30-day window to give comments on the recommendation before it could officially take effect.
“For the Department of Justice, and by delegation the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), to take an administrative scheduling action, it must follow the procedures that Congress set forth in the Controlled Substances Act, including an opportunity for a public comment period and a hear”, the DEA’s Acting Chief of Congressional Affairs Michael Miller says in the letter to Senator Warren and others. “The Department of Justice is carefully following those procedures as it conducts an administrative review of the schedule of marijuana.”
For a complete timeline of the DEA’s marijuana rescheduling review, click here.
