DEA Administrative Law Judge John Mulrooney has ordered witness testimony to begin in the matter of marijuana’s federal classification as a Schedule I controlled substance on Tuesday, January 21, 2025. Barring a stay in the proceedings, witness testimony will take place every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday through the week of March 3rd.
Witnesses representing the Drug Enforcement Administration will testify on the first day of the trial. Though the agency is the designated proponent of the proposed rule to reclassify cannabis from Schedule I to Schedule III of the federal Controlled Substances Act, its legal counsel has not yet provided any indication regarding whether it will champion or challenge the policy change in court. During the pre-trial hearing last week (which may be viewed here), the judge gave the DEA until mid-December to provide its exhibits to the court. Each of the other participants in the hearing have already done so.
Although NORML filed a Notice of Appearance and Notice of Intent to Participate in the trial, and has been a party to past administrative petition efforts and hearings, it was not among those selected by the Agency. In its public comments to DEA in July, NORML concurred with views expressed by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) that cannabis “has a currently accepted medical use” and that its relatively low abuse potential is inconsistent with the criteria required for substances in either Schedule I or Schedule II. The majority of participants who have been selected to participate in the trial oppose the effort to remove cannabis from its Schedule I classification.
The Biden Administration initiated the regulatory process to review cannabis federal scheduling in late 2022. That marked the fifth time that such an administrative petition to remove cannabis from Schedule I had been filed, with NORML filing the initial petition in 1972.