The hearing on broader cannabis rescheduling was awaiting the judge’s recommendation. Three of the seven outside parties the DEA let in have paused it with a government report that never evaluates cannabis on the merits.
The DEA’s chief administrative law judge has stayed the broader cannabis rescheduling proceeding as it awaited his recommendation, after three parties that oppose the change asked him to add a new government report to the hearing record.
Judge Derek Julius issued the stay on Tuesday at the request of the drug-testing trade group NDASA, the organization DUID Victim Voices and Dr. Kenneth Finn. They are three of the seven outside parties the DEA allowed into the hearing, and all seven oppose rescheduling. The report they want added, published by the Government Accountability Office on September 23, found significant gaps in the DEA’s and the FDA’s written policies and procedures for scheduling drugs. It reaches no conclusion about cannabis.
“Accordingly, based on the nature [of] this Motion, it is ORDERED that this matter is STAYED pending the Motion’s resolution,” Julius wrote. He gave the DEA until October 13 to argue whether the record should be reopened, in no more than 20 pages, and told the remaining parties they may respond but are not required to.
Until Tuesday, the next expected step was for Julius, who sat through eleven days of testimony that ended in July, to issue his recommended decision. Many in the industry expected it before the November 3 midterms.
What the report actually found
The GAO report runs 31 pages and is titled “Drug Scheduling: While DEA Decisions Have Aligned with Recent HHS Recommendations, Both Need Comprehensive Policies.” Most of the coverage this week has focused on the second half of that title. The first half is the part the movants have to get …
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Author: Javier Hasse / High Times
