A Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) judge has released the schedule for next week’s administrative hearing on the federal proposal to reclassify marijuana as a Schedule III substance. The hearing is scheduled to begin Monday, June 29, at the DEA Hearing Facility in Arlington, Virginia. It is expected to conclude no later than July 15.
Chief Administrative Law Judge Derek Julius released the schedule today, which follows a preliminary order issued last week and comes after the selected parties submitted their availability for the hearing window.
Julius said “Pursuant to the Preliminary Order issued by this tribunal on June 18, 2026, the Designated Parties have timely submitted their availability for the hearing window. This tribunal has given due consideration to each Designated Party’s availability and has concluded that the following schedule will be best suited.”
Under the schedule, the federal government will present its case on June 29. The National Drug & Alcohol Screening Association is scheduled for July 2, followed by Smart Approaches to Marijuana on July 6 and DUID Victim Voices on July 7.
Kenneth Finn, M.D., is scheduled for July 8, followed by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation on July 10, Phillip A. Drum, PharmD, on July 13, and the states of Nebraska, Idaho, Indiana and Louisiana on July 14.
The order also includes a more detailed hour-by-hour schedule for testimony, examinations and cross-examination. Julius said the timeline is intended to guide the proceeding, but the hearing may move more quickly if parties finish early or decline to use their allotted examination time.
“To the extent that a party concludes with its examination prior to the end of their scheduled time or forgoes examination, the hearing will proceed ahead of schedule to the next item for that day,” the order states. However, Julius said no designated party will be required to begin presenting its case on a different date than the one assigned.
The hearing will not address FDA-approved marijuana products or medical marijuana products regulated under qualifying state medical marijuana licenses, which were moved to Schedule III in April under a separate order issued by Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche.
Instead, the hearing is focused on whether the remaining marijuana covered by the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) should also be transferred to Schedule III.
