Cannabis Rescheduling: Overview, Update, Predictions

Have you heard the latest information about the DEA rescheduling weed? Keep reading for the full scoop weed rescheduling efforts within the government. If the cannabis reschedule is enacted, then medical use of cannabis under federal law would be formally accepted, opening the door for FDA-supervised research and development of cannabis-based drugs.

What Does It Mean to Reschedule Cannabis?

To reschedule cannabis would not, however, remove its classification as a controlled substance or change oversight from the DEA and FDA, but reclassifying to Schedule III would exempt legal cannabis businesses from the limitations of Section 280E of the Internal Revenue Code. This code currently bars businesses trafficking in Schedule I or II substances from deducting ordinary business expenses. Further, approval of rescheduling weed would not federally legalize recreational cannabis, authorize interstate commerce or override any state-level prohibitions.

DEA Rescheduling Weed: Timeline and Political Pressure

President Biden publicly called for a review of cannabis’s Schedule I classification on Oct. 6, 2022, directing the Departments of Health and Human Services (HHS) and Justice (DOJ) to evaluate the scientific basis for rescheduling. In August 2023, HHS sent a formal letter to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), recommending cannabis be reclassified to Schedule III. This letter cited accepted medical use and a lower potential for abuse in relation to other existing controlled substances. The DEA responded April 30, 2024, by announcing its intent to begin the formal rulemaking process to implement the change.

The DEA’s Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) was published in May 2024 in the Federal Register, which opened a 60-day public comment period. This public comment period closed on July 22, 2024, with nearly 43,000 comments submitted. According to an analysis by the Drug Policy Alliance, a strong majority supported rescheduling.

Cannabis Reschedule Hearings Delayed in 2025

Hearings on the proposed rule were scheduled to begin Jan. 21, 2025. However, one week before President Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 13, 2025, the DEA’s Chief Administrative Law Judge John J. Mulrooney cancelled the Jan. 21 public hearing and ordered two pro-rescheduling groups — Village Farms International and Hemp for Victory — to check-in with him in 90 days.

Will Cannabis Rescheduling Happen Under Trump?

As there is no statutory deadline for the DEA to complete weed rescheduling, the present pause could continue indefinitely. President Trump has endorsed a cannabis reschedule in the past, including on his 2024 campaign trail, however efforts to reschedule cannabis is not a priority for the first year of his term, according to the White House.

Legal Challenge: Is the DEA Rescheduling Process Rigged?

A group of doctors have submitted a federal court filing accusing the DEA of fixedly opposing rescheduling weed. According to documents made public as part of the lawsuit brought by Doctors for Drug Policy Reform (DDPR), an organization of pro-cannabis research medical professionals, the federal drug agency:

• Considered a total of 163 applicants, but selected only 25 based on still-unknown criteria.
• Rejected participation requests outright from New York and Colorado officials, which supported rescheduling.
• Attempted to aid almost a dozen opponents of marijuana rescheduling.

Part of the DDPR’s objective was to determine if the DEA’s process “was fixed,” said Dr. Bryon Adinoff, a Colorado-based addiction psychiatrist, academic and president of the DDPR. “And it appears to be,” he added.

Adinoff believes pausing the process or forcing a restart are both preferable to seeing it through to the foregone conclusion of a rescheduling rejection.

“We’re better off arguing the case where we are now than going forward and having it not work in our favor,” he said.

“I don’t know that I expected a fair process or outcome,” said Cat Packer, the director of drug markets and legal regulation at the New York-based Drug Policy Alliance and a distinguished cannabis policy practitioner in residence at Ohio State University’s Drug Enforcement and Policy Center. Packer attempted to participate in the hearings but was rejected.

It “was pretty clear when the proposed rule (from the HHS) came out” in May 2024 that the DEA didn’t want to reschedule marijuana, she said. And there’s little to suggest the DEA’s attitudes have changed under Trump, Packer added.

“This is the DEA’s game,” she said, “and they get to make the rules.”

Final Thoughts on DEA Weed Rescheduling in 2025

Sadly, we predicted in April 2024 that cannabis rescheduling would not happen within the year. What are your predictions for this to happen within the U.S. government? Connect with CannaCon on social and a CannaCon, the nation’s leading business-to-business cannabis conference, to let us know your thoughts!

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