Marijuana rescheduling will be among DEA nominee’s ‘priorities’ but …

President Donald Trump’s second nominee to head the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration told a Senate committee that reviewing the agency’s administrative process to reclassify marijuana will be “one of my first priorities” if he is confirmed.

However, while testifying Wednesday before the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary, potential DEA administrator Terrance Cole was noncommittal about whether he supported the proposed rescheduling, saying he needs to understand where the process stands.

“I’m not familiar exactly where we are, but I know the process has been delayed numerous times, and it’s time to move forward,” Cole told Sen. Alex Padilla, D-California, during the confirmation hearing.

Padilla responded that the committee knows where rescheduling stands and that the DEA’s directive is to reclassify marijuana from Schedule 1 of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) to Schedule 3.

Commitment to rescheduling?

Padilla then asked Cole if he was “committed to seeing it to fruition?”

“I don’t know. I haven’t seen that, sir,” Cole said.

“So you’re leaving the door open to changing course as to … ?” Padilla asked.

“I’m leaving the door open to studying everything that’s been done so far, so I can make a determination, sir,” Cole answered.

“So, make myself a note here,” Padilla said. “No answer to that particular question.”

The rescheduling process began in October 2022 when then-President Joe Biden asked the U.S. attorney general and the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services to begin reviewing marijuana’s classification under the CSA.

The process was moving along until this past January, when the DEA’s chief administrative law judge canceled the proceedings because of an interlocutory appeal.

Then, last month, a new filing around rescheduling confirmed that the process “remains pending.”

Federal government ‘needs to set boundaries’

Sen. Thom Tillis, R-North Carolina, told Cole he is concerned that a Native American tribe in his state – the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians – began selling adult-use marijuana on tribal land in 2024.

North Carolina has not yet legalized recreational or medical marijuana, but the tribe is not subject to state laws.

“The whole patchwork of state laws around legal marijuana, medical marijuana, it’s very confusing,” Tillis said.

“I think it’s out of control. And, ultimately, I believe the United States, the federal government, needs to set boundaries.”

Cole was Trump’s second choice to lead the DEA.

The president’s first nominee – Chad Chronister, a Florida county sheriff – withdrew from consideration only days after he was picked.