Following claims that the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn the Chevron precedent could cancel marijuana rescheduling, a leading expert has provided a rebuttal.
Matt Zorn, an attorney and partner at the lawfirm Yetter Coleman LLP, detailed his perspective in an article on his Substack On Drugs. Zorn says that “overturning Chevron was a good thing for rescheduling.”
He further explained to Green Market Report that the ruling “changes nothing” about the ongoing process to reclassify cannabis from Schedule I to Schedule III.
Zorn contended that the ruling actually undermines previous justifications used by the Drug Enforcement Administration to dismiss rescheduling requests. Zorn argued that concerns about the Chevron ruling affecting federal marijuana rescheduling are essentially a “nothingburger.”
He wrote the piece in response to attorney Josh Schiller saying that following the Chevron decision, “rescheduling is gone. I think it’ll be canceled”.
Zorn dismissed this notion, stating that such an analysis is not “fully baked” and “ought not to be given much deference.”
In reference to a 1991 case, Zorn highlighted that the DEA had used an outdated definition of “currently accepted medical use” to evaluate cannabis and other drugs—a standard that the Chevron ruling invalidated last Friday.
“Put simply, Chevron stitched together DEA’s five-part test that resulted in the denial of all rescheduling petitions,” Zorn wrote. “But it doesn’t stitch together the current (Department of Health and Human Services) test endorsed by (Office of Legislative Counsel).”
He argued that the Controlled Substances Act already provides specific guidelines for the rescheduling process, and the Chevron ruling will not impact the scientifically mandated legal support that underpins these steps.
“All in all, Chevron’s demise was an unquestionably positive sign for rescheduling back when DEA used its five-part test to reject rescheduling petitions,” Zorn wrote. “Now, however, HHS uses a new test that follows from the plain meaning of the statutory text. HHS applied that test according to delegation in the CSA that has it making findings/determinations on medical and scientific matters.”
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