The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration has become a convenient political punching bag for members of Congress on both sides of the aisle when it comes to cannabis policy, with both Republicans and Democrats issuing demands in the past week to the agency on marijuana-related issues.
On Wednesday, a trio of Senate Republicans, led by Utah Sen. Mitt Romney, sent a letter to the DEA urging the agency to keep marijuana at its current status as a Schedule I controlled substance. They argued that moving it to Schedule III – as proposed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration – would put the U.S. in violation of the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, which the country signed in 1961.
“Marijuana is controlled under the Single Convention – which is not surprising given its known dangers and health risks – and the United Nation’s International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) has fiercely criticized efforts to legalize marijuana in other countries as a violation of the treaty,” wrote the senators. “It is important that the DEA continues to follow the law and abide by our treaty commitments.”
The three senators – which included Sen. Jim Risch of Idaho and Sen. Pete Ricketts of Nebraska – requested a formal response from the DEA as to whether the agency still thinks the treaty must be honored by keeping cannabis as a Schedule I or Schedule II narcotic, and how the proposed rescheduling move could be reconciled with the U.S. treaty obligations. They also asked if DEA was consulting with the State Department on marijuana rescheduling or with “key counterdrug partner nations.”
The letter suggested that if the DEA were to reschedule marijuana and ignore the treaty, that could open the door for other nations to make similar move with other narcotics such as fentanyl.
On the flip side of the policy equation, a pair of House Democrats this past week sent the Department of Justice and DEA a letter of their own, demanding renewed policy guidance for states and businesses operating legal cannabis markets to ensure they don’t incur the DEA’s wrath accidentally, Marijuana Moment reported.
The letter, written by U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer of Oregon and U.S. Rep. Barbara Lee of California, made the case for the DOJ to issue a new version of the Cole Memos and other policy documents that were revoked in 2018 under the Trump administration by then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
Those memos previously stood as guidance for how states and Native American tribes could regulate their own marijuana markets – such as by preventing diversion to the illegal market or sales to minors – and were issued in the wake of the 2012 elections, when Colorado and Washington state voters became the first to approve full-on recreational cannabis legalization.
Blumenauer and Lee wrote that it is “unacceptable” that the agency has ignored the legal disconnect between federal marijuana prohibition and the dozens of state marijuana markets that have launched in the past decade.
Attorney General Merrick Garland previously pledged to reissue the policy memos, or something very similar, to serve as guiding lights for new state cannabis markets that continue to come online as the industry grows, Marijuana Moment reported.
But it’s been more than a year since Garland made that pledge, Blumenauer and Lee wrote, and the lack of action has been “especially concerning.”
“Law enforcement, state regulators, small businesses, patients, and everyday Americans are caught in the ambiguity of the federal-state gap, made worse by the delay in reissuing the Cole and Wilkinson Memoranda protections,” Blumenauer and Lee wrote, adding that they have both been “consistently disappointed in meetings with agency leadership and DOJ prosecutors on existing policies.”
It’s unclear if the DOJ will issue new guidance memos, but rescheduling has been in the works since October 2022, when President Biden ordered his administration to review the Schedule I classification. Last summer, the Department of Health and Human Services recommended moving cannabis to Schedule III, but thus far, the DEA has remained mum on what direction it’s leaning or when it may issue a decision, which has led to consternation among many in the marijuana industry.
The post DEA on the receiving end of cannabis policy demands from GOP Senators, House Dems appeared first on Green Market Report.
KahliBuds Tea News 
Leave a comment