Schumer, Booker And Other Senators Push DEA To ‘Promptly Finalize’ Marijuana Rescheduling

Top Democratic senators, including Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), are pushing the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to”promptly finalize” a rule to reschedule marijuana.

In a letter sent to Attorney General Merrick Garland and DEA Administrator Anne Milgram on Friday, Schumer and Sens. Cory Booker (D-NJ), Ron Wyden (D-OR) and others implored the administration to follow through on a proposal to move cannabis from Schedule I to Schedule III of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA), as the Justice Department formally proposed in May.

“The proposed rule to reclassify marijuana to schedule III recognizes the medical benefits of marijuana, will improve access for studying the health effects of short and long-term cannabis use, and will provide relief to cannabis businesses that continue to navigate a patchwork regulatory system to conduct legal business,” they said.

A public comment period on the proposed rule closed last week, with more than 40,000 people weighing in on the modest reform. Initial analyses of the comments indicated that the vast majority were in favor of reclassifying cannabis or descheduling it altogether.

The senators said they “urge DEA to promptly finalize this proposed rule to reschedule.”

“Rescheduling presents significant benefits to public health, research, business, and Americans harmed by the lasting effects of our punitive drug policies,” the letter says. “It will also bolster cannabis related businesses, many of which are owned by people criminalized for marijuana offenses, opening them up to critical investment opportunities.”

While rescheduling would remove certain research barriers and free up state-licensed cannabis business to take federal tax deductions under the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) code known as 280E, it would not federally legalize marijuana, as the Congressional Research Service (CRS) has made known in multiple recent reports.

The senators said rescheduling could additionally prompt the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) “to generate and update technical information on cannabis to clarify its regulatory approach to relevant stakeholders” and “create broader availability of supply for studies, while allowing researchers to avoid the stringent and costly DEA administrative review process.”

“Better study of marijuana will make its use safer for users and communities,” they said, while adding that existing federally approved studies “do not reflect the full range of products consumed by customers,” as the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) separately explained in a report to Congress in June.

“Reclassification is a long overdue step toward the end of prohibition, which has disproportionately impacted young people and people of color for decades,” the letter says, noting that the issue could be more comprehensively addressed if Congress enacted legislation to end federal marijuana prohibition, such as the Cannabis Administration and Opportunity Act (CAOA) that Schumer, Booker and Wyden have sponsored.

“The bill would create a federal regulatory framework to protect public health and prioritize restorative justice to undo the decades of harm caused by the failed War on Drugs,” they said. “This legislation was heavily informed by states’ laws creating legal adult-use cannabis markets.”

“Marijuana prohibition has denied scores of Americans from benefiting from the drug’s accepted medical uses and resulted in criminal enforcement that has harmed communities around the nation. Criminal enforcement has contributed to our country’s exorbitant incarceration rates, racial disparities in policing, and immense pain and loss in communities hardest hit by punitive marijuana policies. This is true especially for low-income communities and people of color. From 2010-2018, marijuana related arrests reached 6.1 million, with 700,000 in 2018 alone.”

The senators, who back full legalization, wrote that incremental rescheduling is “not the panacea to undoing the harms caused by decades of marijuana prohibition, but it is a step toward addressing the policies that have devastated communities across the country.”

“Cannabis should be entirely de-scheduled,” the said. “Yet, we recognize and appreciate DEA’s effort to address the flaws in our current marijuana policy by using its authority under the CSA and following the scientific and medical evidence to reschedule marijuana as a schedule III drug. We urge DEA to finalize the rule.”

Other signatories on the letter include Sens. Tina Smith (D-NM), Ben Ray Luján (D-NM), Patty Murray (D-WA) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY).

—
Marijuana Moment is tracking more than 1,500 cannabis, psychedelics and drug policy bills in state legislatures and Congress this year. Patreon supporters pledging at least $25/month get access to our interactive maps, charts and hearing calendar so they don’t miss any developments.

Learn more about our marijuana bill tracker and become a supporter on Patreon to get access.
—

Meanwhile, two additional congressional lawmakers have joined the ranks of GOP members who are challenging what they say is the “unusual” process that led the Biden administration to propose rescheduling marijuana, expressing concern about how the review was carried out and demanding answers.

Rep. Doug LaMalfa (R-CA) condemned the Biden administration’s push to reclassify marijuana, as well as legislative efforts to enact bipartisan cannabis banking reform, because he says the policy changes would “prop up this immoral industry” and give a “green light to the evil that comes from drug use.”

Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) also blasted the Biden administration over what he described as repeated refusals from federal agencies to brief Congress on its plans and justification for rescheduling marijuana, which he argues fuels speculation that the proposed policy change is politically motivated.

Similarly, 25 GOP congressional lawmakers sent a public comment letter last month opposing the administration’s planned rescheduling of marijuana, specifically alleging the government’s recommendation was based on politics rather than science.

At the Republican National Committee convention last month, multiple GOP lawmakers spoke with Marijuana Moment about their own views on how cannabis policy issues such as rescheduling could be impacted if former President Donald Trump wins the November election. They generally deferred to the nominee, but there were mixed opinions about what they would like to see happen.

Rep. Andy Harris (R-MD), for his part, said at the event that “I don’t care” whether rolling back the Biden administration’s marijuana rescheduling move under a potential Trump presidency would hurt the Republican party, because he feels more strongly that the modest reform would endanger public health.

Also, bipartisan congressional lawmakers are now seeking to remove a controversial section of a spending bill that would block the Justice Department from rescheduling marijuana—one of several cannabis- and psychedelics-related amendments to appropriations legislation that have been filed in recent days.

GOP senators have separately tried to block the administration from rescheduling cannabis as part of a standalone bill filed last September, but that proposal has not received a hearing or vote.

Meanwhile, in one recent public comment on the proposed rule, a group representing state-level cannabis regulators recently called on the Biden administration and DEA Administrator Anne Milgram to provide a clear explanation of how rescheduling marijuana would affect federal enforcement priorities and the U.S. government’s interaction with jurisdictions that regulate cannabis products.

Hedge Fund Billionaire Donates $12 Million To Defeat Florida Marijuana Legalization Measure, Calling It ‘A Terrible Plan’

Photo courtesy of Mike Latimer.