Marijuana rescheduling paused indefinitely after hearing canceled

President-elect Donald Trump’s choice to lead the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration will wield a heavier hand than expected over the ongoing marijuana rescheduling saga after the agency’s chief administrative law judge canceled hearings scheduled for next week.

DEA Chief Administrative Law Judge John Mulrooney II issued a ruling late Monday that included the cancellation of a hearing scheduled for Jan. 21 pending the outcome of a yet-to-be-filed “interlocutory appeal” to the agency’s eventual administrator.

Anne Milligram currently holds the role of DEA administrator, but she’s likely to be replaced once Trump takes office and appoints a new leader for the drug-enforcement agency.

Trump’s initial nominee to head the DEA, Chad Chronister, abruptly backed out, and the president-elect hasn’t identified another choice.

Judge reacted to pro-rescheduling participants

Mulrooney’s ruling Monday came in response to a Jan. 6 request from two pro-rescheduling “designated participants” that Milgram and her agency be removed from the proceedings for demonstrating what they argue is bias.

In their filing, the participants – Village Farms International, a Florida-based agricultural firm that produces cannabis in Canada under a federal license there, and Texas-based Hemp for Victory – requested that Mulrooney allow them to file an appeal “to the Administrator” should Mulrooney refuse to take action.

And that’s what Mulrooney did, according to a copy of the ruling obtained by MJBizDaily.

“Notwithstanding the pleas of the Designated Participants that they are anxious for action on the proposed rescheduling of marijuana, the (filers) … are apparently eager to trade a timely disposition and recommended decision for the dubious advantage of piling on more” participants, Mulrooney wrote in part.

In his ruling, Mulrooney noted that he must find that granting such permission “is clearly necessary to prevent exceptional delay, expense or prejudice to any party, or substantial detriment to the public interest.”

Doing so now might help avoid a future lawsuit challenging the validity of the whole process, he noted.

“Were my analysis to be reviewed on appeal and determined to constitute prejudicial error, a remand would clearly result in significant delay and expense to the Designated Participants and the process,” Mulrooney added.

Federal law grants the next administrator leeway to consider briefs or schedule oral arguments.

“The matter is on stay here, and the Administrator will issue a briefing schedule, entertain oral argument if he/she desires, and issue a binding, written decision on this tribunal,” Mulrooney added, in part.

Mulrooney’s shock choice to pause the long-awaited rescheduling hearings follows the Jan 6 allegations that the DEA is demonstrating a sharp “bias” against rescheduling marijuana as federal health regulators recommended it do in August 2023.

‘DEA has corrupted this hearing’

In an email to MJBizDaily on Monday, Robert Head, the chair of Hemp for Victory, said only the DEA is to blame for any delay in downgrading marijuana’s status under federal law from Schedule 1 to Schedule 3 of the Controlled Substance Act.

Schedule 1 puts marijuana in the same category as heroin and LSD with no medical value.

“The DEA has corrupted this hearing,” Head said, adding that ensuring the hearing is fair is more important than a rapid resolution.

“We owe it to the tens of thousands of activists who have worked on this issue over the past 50 years.

“We owe it to the veterans who overdosed and committed suicide because all they had was pharmacotherapy from the VA. We owe it to the people of this country to call out this corruption.

“If this new administration is really concerned about rooting out corruption, they should look into why the DEA is afraid of reclassifying marijuana to Schedule 3, and I don’t think it has to do with public safety.”

Chris Roberts can be reached at chris.roberts@mjbizdaily.com.