DEA Argues in Favor of Moving Cannabis to Schedule III
The DEA’s long-awaited administrative hearing on moving cannabis from Schedule I to Schedule III opened this week with the agency stating plainly that it supports the move, Cannabis Business Times reports.
According to the report, DEA attorney James Schwartz told the tribunal that the government would call only two witnesses, a scientist and a medical practitioner, to back the proposed rule.
In the lead-up to the hearings, the fact that zero pro-rescheduling parties were invited led some advocates to wonder if the agency was stacking the deck against its own rule, while others read it as consistent with a Trump directive to move the rulemaking along quickly.
Writing in an op-ed for Marijuana Moment, Cat Packer of the Drug Policy Alliance offered a firsthand account that details this point: her organization sought to participate as an interested party and was denied, along with requests from groups including NORML, Marijuana Policy Project, Cannabis Regulators of Color Coalition, Latino Cannabis Alliance, Law Enforcement Action Partnership, Doctors for Drug Policy Reform, the Parabola Center for Law & Policy, Supernova Women and Students for Sensible Drug Policy. Packer wrote that the seven parties DEA did designate to participate all share one thing in common: every one of them opposes rescheduling. Access to the hearing was also limited, with no livestream, video broadcast, or public audio feed.
DEA attorney Schwartz reportedly emphasized that the hearing isn’t about recreational use or legalization, but narrowly about whether cannabis has a “currently accepted medical use.” Under the CSA’s regulatory framing, if cannabis has even one accepted medical use, it can’t stay in Schedule I. The government’s first witness, FDA scientist Dominic Chiapperino, testified that his team’s review supports placing cannabis in Schedule III. A second government witness, Dr. Corey Burchman, testified about his clinical experience helping patients transition from opioids to cannabis and discussed the relative risks of each.
The federal effort to reclassify cannabis began under the Biden administration in 2023 after an HHS finding determined cannabis has accepted medical use for several conditions. After numerous delays, the Trump administration expedited the process with an executive order directing the agency to continue the proceedings. The hearing began June 29 and is scheduled to run as a two-week proceeding, with testimony and cross-examinations continuing through mid-July and concluding no later than July 15.
Though moving cannabis to Schedule III may remove some of the financial obstacles currently faced by state-legal cannabis brands, it would not legalize cannabis federally, create a legal marketplace, or provide any relief for people currently incarcerated on cannabis convictions. Rescheduling will also not end federal criminalization, resolve the conflict between federal and state law, or build the comprehensive regulatory framework the country needs: Congress will need to address these questions directly in order for any meaningful change to take place.