A Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) judge says the agency made a critical “blunder” in its effort to issue subpoenas to force Food and Drug Administration (FDA) officials to testify in upcoming marijuana rescheduling hearings—but he has allowed it to fix the error and ultimately granted the request.
While DEA advised Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) John Mulrooney that it wanted to furnish subpoenas for four FDA officials after the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) declined to voluntarily participate, it erred by putting just one of those officials on all four forms.
Accordingly, the judge initially only granted the single subpoena—though DEA was still given the opportunity to correct the mistake. After submitting the required forms, the ALJ granted the remaining three subpoenas on Tuesday.
Still, Mulrooney made his frustration with the mistake clear.
In an order on Monday the ALJ said the duplicative filing “is apparently an error borne of inattention or inadvertence.”
“To be sure, a blunder of this nature on a case that has garnered a significant level of national attention is an unexpected development, particularly in light of the unique dynamic of one agency of the United States Government seeking process to compel the attendance
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