Washington, DC: The attorneys general of Indiana and Nebraska are challenging a joint order by the Justice Department and the Drug Enforcement Administration reclassifying state-authorized medical cannabis products from Schedule I to Schedule III of the federal Controlled Substances Act.
Plaintiffs filed a lawsuit with the US Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit arguing that the administration’s rescheduling order, issued on April 23rd, is “arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion, and not in accordance with law.” The Court has consolidated the complaint with a separate suit filed in May by the marijuana prohibitionist group SAM Inc. and the National Drug and Alcohol Screening Association. Initially, the attorney general of Louisiana was also a petitioner in the suit; however, she has since filed a motion “to dismiss Louisiana as a petitioner in this proceeding.”
By law, interested parties have 30 days following the issuance of the order to legally challenge reclassification. Plaintiffs must show that they will suffer particularized injury from the rescheduling order, as well as demonstrate that they possess a high likelihood of success “on the merits” of their challenge for it to move forward.
Louisiana and Nebraska both have legalized medical cannabis access, although Nebraska’s program is not yet operational and the state’s AG has spearheaded efforts to nullify the voter-approved law. Over 30,000 Louisianans are registered to participate in that state’s medical cannabis program. Indiana is among the nine US states without any medical marijuana access.
A separate group of plaintiffs – which includes an addiction clinic and a pharmaceutical company, among others – have also sued to challenge the rescheduling order.
Later this month, the DEA is scheduled to hold administrative hearings regarding a 2023 proposed rule by the US Department of Health and Human Services that calls for the rescheduling of all botanical cannabis. NORML has petitioned the DEA to participate in that hearing.
A recent survey of cannabis consumers provided by NuggMD and Marijuana Moment finds that 73 percent of respondents either “approve” or “strongly approve” of the Trump administration’s actions on cannabis policy.
Information on cannabis rescheduling and its implications for state and federal marijuana policies is available from the NORML Fact Sheet, ‘Cannabis Rescheduling: Myths Versus Reality.’