Greg Cherundolo asked to share the below:
This appears to be the first time an Attorney General has directly initiated and signed off on a notice of proposed rulemaking to reschedule a controlled substance. Historically, the rescheduling process has been carried out by the DEA Administrator after receiving a scientific and medical evaluation from the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS).
The key points from the search results are:
– The Controlled Substances Act gives the Attorney General the authority to schedule, reschedule or decontrol drugs, but this authority has typically been delegated to the DEA Administrator.
– In this case, Attorney General Merrick Garland exercised his authority under 21 U.S.C. § 811(a) to initiate the rulemaking process to transfer marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule III, after receiving HHS’s recommendation.
– Garland submitted the notice of proposed rulemaking to the Federal Register, initiating the formal rulemaking process for rescheduling marijuana.
– This is an unusual step, as the search results note that DEA has historically made the final scheduling determinations after rulemaking procedures, not the Attorney General directly.
So while the DEA Administrator has typically carried out controlled substance rescheduling actions after HHS evaluations, this appears to be the first time in recent history that an Attorney General has personally signed off and submitted a notice to initiate rescheduling through the rulemaking process.
Citations:
[1] https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-submits-proposed-regulation-reschedule-marijuana
[2] https://www.marijuanamoment.net/attorney-general-formally-moves-to-reschedule-marijuana-but-dea-signals-resistance-despite-doj-legal-review/
[3] https://mjbizdaily.com/dea-signs-off-on-marijuana-rescheduling/
[4] https://www.dea.gov/sites/default/files/2024-05/Scheduling%20NPRM%20508.pdf
[5] https://coag.gov/press-releases/weiser-dea-rescheduling-cannabis-1-12-24/
Click HERE to read Questions Related to the Potential Rescheduling of Marijuana
Click HERE to read Scheduling NPRM 508
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We also wanted to share this information DEAFNA sent out earlier in the year.
https://afna.org/deafna-
Finally and most importantly remember the comment period is open to make comments or attach documents to the USG Regulations website, so do not hesitate to voice your opinions on this important matter which you can do so by the below link.https://www.regulations.gov/
Greg Cherundolo