The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and prohibitionists have filed their final briefs in the hearing to consider a proposal to reclassify cannabis under federal drug laws, while regulators in Georgia say rescheduling the plant opens a pathway to home delivery of medical cannabis by the postal service and other carriers.
DEA Argues for Rescheduling
The DEA is defending the proposal to move cannabis from Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act to the less-restrictive Schedule III, a significant change for the agency that has argued against the medical use of the plant for decades. The rescheduling proposal is opposed by prohibitionists including Smart Approaches to Marijuana, the states of Idaho, Indiana, and Nebraska, and a group representing the drug testing industry, among others.
The DEA and rescheduling opponents had their chance to offer testimony on the proposal during a hearing that began on June 29. Testimony wrapped up on July 15, and both sides recently filed final briefs for the hearing to meet the August 17 deadline.
In its brief, the DEA wrote that “marijuana no longer fits the statutory requirements for Schedule I because it has a currently accepted medical use within the United States and it has an accepted safety for its use under medical supervision.”
“Currently there are over 30,000 practitioners treating more than six million patients in 43 U.S. jurisdictions,” the agency continued, according to a report from Marijuana Moment. “Such practices demonstrate that there is no longer a lack of accepted safety for use of marijuana under medical supervision, and as such, marijuana does not fulfill the requirements of being a Schedule I substance.”
The DEA also maintains that there is “substantial evidence sufficient to show that marijuana’s abuse and dependency profiles better align with Schedule III substances than Schedule II” or Schedule I. “The vast majority of individuals who use marijuana do so in a manner that does not result in dangers to themselves or to their communities.”
Rescheduling Opponents File Joint Final Brief
The rescheduling opponents filed a joint brief arguing that the DEA and the Department of Health and Human Services have considered proposals to reschedule cannabis at least nine times, noting that “on each occasion, after reviewing the available scientific evidence and applying the criteria specified by the Controlled Substances Act, the Government determined that marijuana must remain in Schedule I because it (i) has a high risk of abuse, (ii) has no currently accepted medical use, and (iii) cannot be used safely under medical supervision.”
The opponents to the rescheduling proposal also noted that the government relied on a new two-part test to determine currently accepted use instead of the previous five-part test that kept cannabis in Schedule I.
“This Tribunal should reject the Government’s attempt to supplant the standards of the Controlled Substances Act and decades of agency precedent with newfound standards dreamt up only for this proceeding,” the opponents’ brief reads. “Under the established legal standards, the evidence points in only one direction: Marijuana must remain in Schedule I.”
With the final briefs filed, DEA Chief Administrative Law Judge Derek Julius will now consider the oral and written testimony before issuing a recommendation on the rescheduling proposal. The final decision lies with the DEA administrator.
Georgia Regulators Propose Medical Cannabis Home Delivery
While the hearing is considering a proposal to broadly place cannabis in Schedule III, state-licensed medical cannabis and FDA approved cannabis drugs were rescheduled in April under an order from then acting Attorney General Todd Blanche. With the change, regulators in Georgia are exploring ways to allow medical cannabis delivery by the U.S. Postal Service and other carriers such as FedEx and UPS.
The proposed rule change was considered by the Georgia Access to Medical Cannabis Commission (GMCC) at a meeting last week.
“We think this provides a great pathway. It maintains the same tracking standards that the commission has, and it really leverages the authority in that DEA rescheduling order for state-regulated medical marijuana program,” GMCC executive director Andrew Turnage said about the new proposed rules. “Without these regulations, we don’t have guidelines in place for things like delivery. We think it’s really important to put those guardrails in place and establish standards.”
The regulator added that Georgia is a “very large state,” making it difficult for many medical cannabis providers to visit a provider.
“Patients in many areas are having to travel two hours or more, either into a congested metropolitan area or around large geographic divides—whether that’s the mountains, the rivers, or the lakes, and it makes it impossible to get east to west across our great state,” said Turnage.
The GMCC will take public feedback on the proposed rules to permit medical cannabis mail delivery at its meeting on September 16 before holding a vote on the proposal on September 30, Marijuana Moment reported.
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