It’s been a bit of a long, bureaucracy-filled road towards rescheduling marijuana.
Once the decision moved to the DEA, they opened up a period for public comment over the summer, and after that things seemed ready for a finalization until the DEA decided to go an extra step and induce a hearing that would occur after the election. Now, when that hearing was supposed to begin, things have been pushed to mid-January where it will now start in earnest. It will be overseen by the DEA’s chief administrative judge, John Mulrooney II.
It’s also unclear how long the hearing will actually take. On Monday, Judge Mulrooney said they will meet from Tuesday through Thursday “for as long as it takes.” A little difficult to discern time frame with that language.
He continued, “Remember, everybody, this is not a trial whether marijuana is good or bad. I don’t know if it’s good. My issues are much more narrow than that. It has to do with addiction potential and several other little pigeonholes that I have.”
With things left to this particular judge, it seems at this point that whoever Trump picks to head the DEA will have their hands tied by the judges decision. Although, that entirely depends on the extremity of their views, and as of today it’s unclear who that will be. Trump had nominated Chad Chronister for the job, but yesterday he backed out, citing the “gravity of this very important responsibility.” According to CNN, some had expressed concerns about the pick not being MAGA enough, so we can expect the next candidate to have potentially more extreme views towards drugs and marijuana.
Read the original DEA story at MJBizDaily, and the Chronister story at CNN.
