Days after the Department of Justice rescheduled state-licensed medical marijuana under the Controlled Substances Act, the Drug Enforcement Administration has formally unveiled the next steps in the process. On April 28 the agency published several marijuana-related notices in the Federal Register, covering applications to handle medical marijuana as a Schedule III substance as well as the upcoming hearing on whether non-medical marijuana should remain in Schedule I.
The long-awaited hearing is slated to begin June 29, and to conclude by July 15. Anyone interested in participating must file a request with the DEA by May 28, and the agency will notify those who have been selected on June 22. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche will designate the administrative law judge to preside over the hearing, but has not yet done so.
The federal marijuana rescheduling hearing was previously set for January 2025, but was postponed by DEA Administrative Law Judge John Mulrooney and had been in limbo until the April 23 DOJ announcement.
In addition to the Federal Register notice on the proposed rescheduling of medical marijuana, the DEA published a separate notice withdrawing its original rescheduling notice from May 2024, stating that it had “determined that the most expeditious manner of completing the rulemaking process in accordance with Federal law is to terminate the pending hearing proceedings and initiate new hearing proceedings.”
A third, more substantive notice published April 28 pertains to licensing requirements. Any entities that want access to FDA-approved medical marijuana products will need to register with the DEA and become licensed to handle Schedule III controlled substances. State-licensed medical dispensaries will be able to apply using their existing credentials.
A new registration portal is set to go live April 29 at 9 am EST.
The agency stated that “the most effective and efficient” way to reconcile the changes with federal and international law is to fold state-level licensing systems into the DEA’s existing registration system. The agency has created a registration portal for state-licensed dispensaries seeking to handle Schedule III medical marijuana. It’s set to go live April 29 at 9 am EST.
Applicants must pay a $794 fee, which will recur annually. The only available payment method is PayPal, but the DEA stated in the application that it plans to have additional options “in the coming weeks.”
To remain in compliance with the United Nations Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs and its restrictions around Schedule I substances, the DEA has been required to monopolize sales of all marijuana supplied for research purposes. It is not similarly required to monopolize the wholesale trade of “medicinal cannabis.”
However, citing the “Convention’s requirement that a government agency serve as the exclusive purchaser of cannabis production,” the DEA will establish a “purchase-and-resale mechanism” in which it buys marijuana crops from registered manufacturers and sells it back to them at the same price.
“Out of an abundance of caution, the Administrator clarifies that researchers who obtain marijuana or marijuana-derived products from a state licensee for use in scientific research shall incur no civil or criminal liability under the Controlled Substances Act solely by reason of having obtained such products from a state-licensed source rather than a separately DEA-registered bulk manufacturer,” the notice states. “The Administrator shall not treat the use of state-licensed marijuana products in federally registered research as a basis for adverse action.”
Image via Los Angeles County Department of Consumer and Business Affairs
