On August 29, the U.S. Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) will formally publish notice that it will hold a hearing beginning December 2 on the rescheduling of marijuana into schedule III of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA). The CSA authorizes DOJ to transfer a drug from one schedule to another by issuing a rule, made on the record after opportunity for a hearing, under the formal rulemaking procedures of the Administrative Procedure Act. This notice confirms that DEA has authorized a hearing to receive factual evidence and expert opinion regarding whether marijuana should be transferred to schedule III. This means that a final decision by DEA in this rulemaking process will not be completed prior to the November election and may likely be delayed until after the next President is sworn into office.

On August 2, Congressman Earl Blumenauer (D-OR), founder and co-chair of the Congressional Cannabis Caucus, released a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) report on the Health Effects of Cannabis and Cannabinoids and Barriers to Research. Consistent with an earlier HHS analysis that underlies the Drug Enforcement Administration’s proposal to transfer marijuana to Schedule III under the Controlled Substances Act, this report to Congress states that there are medical benefits associated with the use of FDA-approved cannabinoid medications and there is credible scientific support suggesting that cannabis has additional therapeutic potential.

HHS further notes, however, that additional research is needed to address a variety of risks and unknowns relating to the use of cannabis, and that barriers to research must be addressed, such as that researchers cannot legally obtain or analyze products sold through state marijuana dispensaries under current DEA regulations.

LeadingAge summited a July 22 letter in support of a proposal from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration to move marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule III under the federal Controlled Substances Act. This LeadingAge article provides additional information and background, including a link to our comments.

We wrote that a transfer to Schedule III could lead to a greater volume of beneficial research on medical uses of cannabis as well as potential risks of misuse or abuse, and that it may begin to address some of the misalignment between federal and state laws, such as HUD guidance that the use of medical marijuana is illegal under federal law even if it is permitted under state law, which creates access barriers in HUD-assisted housing.

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) Drug Enforcement Administration, initiated a formal rulemaking process on May 21 to consider moving marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule III under the Controlled Substances Act.  In August 2023, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recommended to the Drug Enforcement Administration that marijuana be reclassified, and a related DOJ press statement from the Department confirms that it will propose the schedule transfer, consistent with the view of HHS that marijuana has a currently accepted medical use as well as HHS’s views about marijuana’s abuse potential and level of physical or psychological dependence.