Anti-rescheduling parties filed pre-hearing statements ahead of a DEA proceeding scheduled June 29–July 15 in Arlington, Virginia. The DEA, formally the proponent of moving marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule III of the Controlled Substances Act, has excluded rescheduling supporters from participating.
Idaho, Indiana, and Nebraska cited marijuana's links to psychiatric harm, homelessness, traffic accidents, drug trafficking, and crime to justify their restrictions. They will call Deepak Cyril D'Souz, inaugural director of the Yale Center for the Science of Cannabis and Cannabinoids, to testify on abuse liability, psychosis, and cognitive effects, and Humboldt County, California Sheriff William Honsal to testify that legalization expanded the illicit market and criminal enterprises exploited medical marijuana laws for mass production and interstate distribution. Louisiana, initially a party, is absent from the filing.
The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation will call Erica Stephens, assistant special agent in charge of the Tennessee Dangerous Drugs Task Force, to testify the rescheduling proposal is "deficient," that it ignores evidence against Schedule III, and that marijuana is diverted into Tennessee from licensed states.
Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM) will call DEA pharmacologist Luli Akinfiresoye—a move DEA has resisted—who during the cancelled Biden-era hearing submitted a report linking cannabis to psychosis, depression, and cognitive impairment, and former White House ONDCP Director Bertha Madras, who will testify marijuana merits only Schedule I. The National Drug & Alcohol Screening Association (NDASA) will call former DOT official Patrice Kelly and executive director JoMcGuire on transportation safety.
DEA Administrator Terrance Cole rejected NORML's request to reconsider its exclusion, writing the group "fails to sufficiently explain how or why NORML is adversely affected or aggrieved by the promulgation of a rule transferring marijuana….from schedule I to schedule III."
DEA Chief Administrative Law Judge Derek Julius barred livestreaming, requiring in-person attendance. Attorney Joseph A. Bondy sent a letter Tuesday contending limited seating is no substitute for contemporaneous access.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche in April reclassified state-licensed medical cannabis from Schedule I to Schedule III; a separate order initiated this rescheduling hearing. The process faces consolidated lawsuits from state attorneys general, legalization opponents, and a biopharmaceutical firm; a congressional committee voted to block further steps. The ATF updated a draft gun-purchase form for medical marijuana's new status; Treasury and IRS plan guidance ending the 280E bar for cannabis businesses; and the Department of Transportation said medical cannabis still disqualifies safety-sensitive workers testing positive.
