The DEA’s long-awaited administrative hearing on moving cannabis from Schedule I to Schedule III opened this week with the agency making it clear that it supports the move, Cannabis Business Times reports.

According to the report, DEA attorney James Schwartz told the court that the government would call only two witnesses, a scientist and a doctor, to support the proposed rule.

At the start of the hearings, the fact that no pro-rescheduling parties were invited prompted some advocates to question whether the agency was setting the table against its own rules, while others read it as complying with a Trump directive to move the rule quickly.

Writing in one op-ed for Marijuana Moment, Cat Packer of the Drug Policy Alliance offered a firsthand account detailing this point: her organization asked to participate as an interested party and was denied, along with requests from groups including NORML, the Marijuana Policy Project, the Cannabis Regulators of Color Coalition, the Latino Cannabis Alliance, the Law Enforcement Center for Law Advocacy, Law Prevention, the Party of Rebolli & Politics, Women and Supernova Students for Sensitive Drug Policies. Packer wrote that the seven parties the DEA has designated to participate all have one thing in common: Each of them opposes reprogramming. Access to the hearing was also limited, with no live stream, video stream or public audio feed.

DEA attorney Schwartz reportedly stressed that the hearing is not about recreational use or legalization, but rather whether cannabis has a “currently accepted medical use.” Under the CSA’s regulatory framework, if cannabis has even one accepted medical use, it cannot remain in Schedule I. The government’s first witness, FDA scientist Dominic Chiapperino, testified that his team’s review supports placing cannabis in Schedule III. A second government witness, Dr. Corey Burchman, testified about his clinical experience helping patients transition from opioids to cannabis, and discussed the relative risks of each.

The federal effort to reclassify cannabis began under the Biden administration in the year 2023 following an HHS finding, cannabis has accepted medical use for some conditions. After numerous delays, the Trump administration sped up the process with an executive order directing the agency to continue the proceedings. The hearing began on June 29 and is scheduled to run as a two-week proceeding, with testimony and cross-examination continuing through mid-July and ending no later than July 15.

Although moving cannabis to Schedule III could remove some of the financial hurdles legal cannabis brands currently face, it would not federally legalize cannabis, create a legal market, or provide any relief to people currently incarcerated for cannabis convictions. Reprogramming also won’t end federal criminalization, resolve the conflict between federal and state law, or build the comprehensive regulatory framework the country needs: Congress will have to address these questions head-on for any meaningful change to occur.

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