The head of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has committed to requesting a timeline from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on the Biden administration’s ongoing federal marijuana scheduling review—a process that one congressman jokingly said that he hopes will result in the drug being moved from Schedule I to Schedule “420.”
At a House Judiciary Crime and Federal Government Surveillance Subcommittee hearing on Thursday, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) pressed DEA Administrator Anne Milgram for her thinking on the review, as well as the challenges posed by the current patchwork of state cannabis laws under federal prohibition.
Milgram said that DEA has not yet received a scheduling recommendation from HHS, which is carrying out a scientific review into marijuana. When the agency does receive it, it will then carry out its own eight-factor analysis and open public comment before making the final call.
“We have constant conversations with HHS and with FDA, but we have not been given a specific timeline,” she said.
Gaetz asked if the DEA administrator would request that timeline from HHS, and she said, “I will ask.”
The congressman then asked if DEA had any reason to oppose the removal of cannabis from Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA), and Milgram said that she “couldn’t prejudge it at this point in time” without the recommendation from HHS, as well as her own agency’s analysis.
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