Marijuana Rescheduling Blocked By Opposition ‘From Within’ DEA, Biden’s Drug Czar Says
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Former President Joe Biden’s drug czar says the process to reschedule marijuana as initiated under the last administration may have been compromised by officials with the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), which was supposed to be defending the proposed policy change.
At the same time, a pro-legalization former OP congressman allied with President Donald Trump is raising questions about the sincerity of the current president’s endorsement of rescheduling on the campaign trail.
About four months into Trump’s second term, there has still been no movement on the pending plan to move cannabis from Schedule I to Schedule III of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA), leaving advocates and stakeholders frustrated both by the current inaction but also the Biden administration’s failure to get the job done before the transition.
According to former White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) Director Rahul Gupta, that may have been due to deliberate resistance from within DEA—a suspicion shared widely among supporters of the reform, including those involved in an administrative hearing that’s been stalled for months, with no clear indication it will proceed any time soon.
“We got stuck moving at the slow speed of government, which was also marred, potentially, by some opposing it from within,” Gupta told The New York Times as part of a broader story examining the rescheduling effort.
The article also features interviews with a former senior DEA agent and former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), who notably suggested that Trump’s endorsement of a Schedule III reclassification on the campaign trail was essentially an attempt to shore up support among young voters rather than a sincere reflection of his personal views about cannabis.
As far as speculation about DEA’s role in the protracted process goes, there are several factors that have led many to conclude the agency’s leadership internally opposed the proposal, including the fact that there was a break in precedent when then-Attorney General Merrick Garland signed off on it after the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) made the recommendation. Historically, the DEA administrator approves drug scheduling proposals.
DEA had also previously raised a series of questions about the scientific review that served as the basis of its recommendation that some interpreted to mean it disagreed about the assessments about marijuana’s medical value and relatively low abuse potential, even though the agency technically serves as the “proponent” of the rule in since-stalled administrative hearings. Others have alleged DEA had improper communication with prohibitionist witnesses in the lead-up to the proceedings.
What happens next in the process is uncertain, especially ahead of the potential Senate confirmation of Trump’s pick to lead DEA, Terrance Cole, who has declined to say whether he supports the proposal but has previously voiced concerns about the dangers of marijuana and linked its use to higher suicide risk among youth.
Trump, for his part, has not publicly weighed in on cannabis reform since taking office, and the White House did not include rescheduling in a recently released list of drug policy priorities for the administration.
Anthony Coulson, who retired from DEA in 2010 but remains close with former colleagues, told The Times he ultimately doesn’t see the proposal moving ahead under the Trump administration. And he also suggested DEA deliberately delayed the administrative process in an attempt to quash it.
“Cannabis reform appears to be all but dead in this administration,” Coulson said. “To use a Trump term, it was rigged not to succeed.”
Other former DEA and HHS officials have separately expressed their sense that, if rescheduling is going to happen, the president will need to proactively demand its completion.
Meanwhile, Gaetz—a pro-legalization former GOP congressman who Trump first tapped for attorney general but withdrew from consideration—made somewhat surprising comments about the president’s position on rescheduling, suggesting that his endorsement of the reform while campaigning last year may have been a politically motivated move to try and win over more young voters but that he personally has “a deep personal aversion to anything that dulls the senses.”
While Trump’s position on the issue has evolved over the years, including several past comments supportive of medical cannabis, Gaetz said the president is still “totally intolerant” to any reform that “he believes will increase drug use.”
That represents a significant shift in rhetoric Gaetz used in an op-ed in March, when he predicted that “meaningful” marijuana reform is “on the horizon” under the Trump administration and praised the president’s “leadership” in supporting rescheduling.
“By backing this move, [Trump] stands up for patients, small businesses and especially our veterans. It is crucial that our federal agencies follow through on this effort and finally align federal cannabis policy with the will of the American people,” he said at the time.
Nonetheless, the fate of rescheduling remains murky under the Trump administration, and a Senate panel is positioned to advance the nomination of the president’s DEA pick as early as Thursday, which would add to the uncertainty. That said, Cole did tell the Senate Judiciary Committee last month that examining the rescheduling proposal will be “one of my first priorities” if he gets the role, saying it’s “time to move forward” on the stalled process—but without clarifying what end result he would like to see.
DEA recently notified an agency judge that the proceedings are still on hold—with no future actions currently scheduled as the matter sits before the acting administrator.
Separately, last month, an activist who received a pardon for a marijuana-related conviction during Trump’s first term paid a visit to the White House, discussing future clemency options with the recently appointed “pardon czar.”
A marijuana industry-backed political action committee (PAC) has also released a series of ads over recent weeks that have attacked Biden’s cannabis policy record as well as the nation of Canada, promoting sometimes misleading claims about the last administration while making the case that Trump can deliver on reform.
Its latest ad accused former President Joe Biden and his DEA of waging a “deep state war” against medical cannabis patients—but without mentioning that the former president himself initiated the rescheduling process that marijuana companies want to see completed under Trump.
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