Federal health officials are asking a court to dismiss marijuana legalization opponents’ lawsuit challenging a new Trump administration initiative to cover up to $500 worth of hemp-derived products each year for eligible Medicare patients. The program being implemented by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) focuses largely on CBD but also allows a certain amount of THC in products.
Lawyers for Health and Human Services Sec. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and CMS Director Mehmet Oz filed a brief on Thursday saying that the anti-cannabis organizations that filed the suit against the Medicare hemp coverage policy do not have standing to bring the case.
The prohibitionist groups, led by Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM), are “are unregulated parties in every sense” and CMS has “not required them to do or refrain from doing anything,” the government brief says, arguing that the plaintiffs have not actually been harmed by the policy.
Beyond the advocacy organizations, the case’s sole individual plaintiff is anti-marijuana lawyer David Evans, who claims he has standing to challenge the new Substance Access Beneficiary Engagement Incentive (BEI) as a Medicare recipient—but the federal agencies reject that argument.
“Mr. Evans opposes hemp products and will not use them. He
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