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No timeline on Biden administration marijuana rescheduling, DEA chief says
July 28, 2023
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The Biden administration has yet to provide the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration a “specific timeline” to complete its review of marijuana’s status under federal law, the agency’s chief told members of Congress on Thursday.
That prompted one lawmaker to vow to speed things along.
“We’re going to get this moving,” said U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen, a Democrat from Tennessee.
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Last fall, President Joe Biden triggered an “administrative review” of marijuana’s classification in the Controlled Substances Act.
Public health agencies, including the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the Department of Health and Human Services, are currently reviewing published science and data.
That includes data from medical marijuana programs submitted by state regulators.
After the science is considered, health agencies deliver a recommendation to the DEA.
That process will “hopefully” be completed by the end of the year, Health Secretary Xavier Becerra said in June.
But on Thursday, DEA Administrator Anne Milgram was less specific.
According to The Hill, Milgram told pro-marijuana members of Congress that the DEA to date has “not been given a specific timeline” to consider rescheduling and offer its own recommendation to the president.
“I have not heard of a timeline from them,” she told Rep. Matt Gaetz, a Florida Republican.
“So I don’t know.”
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Biden has said he supports federal medical cannabis legalization and marijuana decriminalization.
Rescheduling would be a boon to the marijuana industry, which has long called for tax relief.
Rescheduling marijuana, currently classified as a Schedule 1 controlled substance, would mean cannabis businesses would no longer be subject to the tax restrictions under Section 280E of the federal tax code
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