Despite growing support at the federal level, the process likely won’t be completed until at least 2025.
In a letter this week to the U.S. attorney general and the head of the Drug Enforcement Administration, two of the top-ranking Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives urged the Department of Justice to move at top speed in its current effort to reclassify marijuana as a less-dangerous drug.
U.S. Reps. Frank Pallone Jr. and Jerrold Nadler, who respectively chair the Energy and Commerce Committee and the Judiciary Committee, wrote to the agency to “encourage” its “swift action” on moving marijuana to Schedule III from Schedule I, which at this point is not likely to be finalized until next year given that the DEA has a hearing on the matter scheduled for Dec. 2.
“We applaud the Biden-Harris Administration’s efforts in initiating this review, conducting a thorough scientific and medical analysis, and engaging in the rulemaking process. We urge you to swiftly complete this process and transfer marijuana to schedule III,” the two wrote to Attorney General Merrick Garland and DEA Administrator Anne Milgram.
Pallone and Nadler also urged the DOJ “to assess whether schedule IV, schedule V, or descheduling may be appropriate,” suggesting that they would support full marijuana legalization rather than just a rescheduling.
Despite the growing support on the national level, changes to the classification of cannabis have been slow going. The rescheduling kicked off two years ago, in October 2022, when President Joe Biden called for a federal review.
Since then, former President Donald Trump has come aboard the cannabis reform train, and last month endorsed rescheduling, putting to rest industry fears that he may reverse the policy change if re-elected in November.
Vice President Kamala Harris upped the ante just this week when she came out in favor of full federal marijuana legalization, which would likely require cannabis to be removed from the list of controlled substances altogether, as Pallone and Nadler suggested in their letter.
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