Lexology May 23, 2024
On May 21, 2024, The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) issued a notice of proposed rulemaking in the Federal Register (FR) to reschedule marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule III of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA). This announcement comes nearly a year after the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) August 29, 2023 letter to the DEA recommending that marijuana be rescheduled. It also follows an April 11, 2024 opinion letter from the DOJ Office of Legal Counsel that the United States’ international treaty obligations do not prevent rescheduling marijuana. The proposed rule represents the most significant policy shift for marijuana since the passage of the CSA in 1970, which categorized marijuana as a Schedule I controlled substance.
The...