The first hearings on the Biden administration’s marijuana rescheduling proposal that were set for next week have now been canceled following a legal challenge from pro-reform witnesses, a Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) judge has ruled.
While DEA Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) John Mulrooney rejected key arguments from rescheduling proponents about how alleged improper communications and witness selection decisions by DEA Administrator Anne Milgram warranted the agency’s removal from the process altogether, he ultimately granted a request for leave to file an interlocutory appeal—canceling the scheduled January 21 merit-based hearing and staying the proceedings for at least three months.
And although Mulrooney cited statutory restrictions on his office’s ability to take actions such as removing DEA as the “proponent” of the proposal to move marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule III of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA), he sharply criticized the agency over various procedural missteps that he argued contributed to a delay of the rulemaking, potentially indefinitely as a new administration is set to come into office next week.
Central to the movants’ motion to remove DEA are allegations that certain agency officials conspired with anti-rescheduling witnesses who were selected for the hearing. The judge didn’t outright deny those claims
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