The hearing that could decide weed’s federal future starts June 29. The DEA invited seven participants, and every one of them is against reform. It won’t be livestreamed. And loading the room this hard might be the thing that gets the whole rule thrown out in court.
On June 29, the federal government will hold a hearing that will help decide whether all marijuana (not just medical cannabis and FDA-approved products) moves to Schedule III. Seven outside parties got a seat in the room. All seven oppose rescheduling. Not one supporter of reform made the list.
That is not an exaggeration. The DEA released its roster of “interested persons” on June 18: the National Drug & Alcohol Screening Association, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, the prohibitionist group Smart Approaches to Marijuana, the states of Nebraska, Idaho, Indiana and Louisiana, the group DUID Victim Voices, and two individual doctors. Every name on it has lined up against loosening federal cannabis law, and some have sued to block the reform outright. As Cannabis Business Times put it, this appears to be the first known ALJ hearing on a rule of major public interest in which one entire side is shut out.
You Can Only Get In If You’re Against It
The reason no reform supporter got in is a piece of logic worthy of a Kafka novel. To qualify as an “interested person,” the DEA decided you have to be “adversely affected or aggrieved” by the proposed rule. Since reform groups support moving cannabis off Schedule I, the agency reasoned, they cannot be harmed by it, so they have no standing to show up.
That logic swept out everyone. NORML, which has represented cannabis consumers for more than 50 years, was rejected, as the group itself reported. So were the Drug Policy Alliance, …
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Author: Javier Hasse / High Times
