The White House Press Secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, has suggested that the Department of Justice could now have the final say in whether cannabis is rescheduled.
Asked whether the state is ‘doing anything to try to improve safety’ or considering the legalization of cannabis federally moving forward during a press conference yesterday, Ms Jean Pierre said that the scheduling review is ‘now with the DOJ’.
“So as you all know, the President asked the Secretary of HHS (Department of Health and Human Services) and the Attorney General to initiate the administrative process to review how marijuana is scheduled.
“HHS has concluded their independent review guided by the evidence, the scheduling review is now with DOJ and any input should certainly be directed to them at a time and in a manner they say is appropriate…At this point, now that HHS has completed their review, it’s in the Department of Justice, and they can speak to where marijuana rescheduling is at this point.”
The statement, first reported by Marijuana Moment, comes amid growing pressure and signs of commitment from the Biden administration to implement reform at the federal level.
Following the HHS recommendation that cannabis should be moved from a Schedule I substance to a Schedule III substance, the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) is continuing its review into the matter, and the industry is eagerly awaiting its decision.
According to sources speaking to Green Market Report however, the timing of this decision remains unclear, and the process could yet take years to come to fruition. With a November presidential election looming, this leaves the future of the initiative uncertain.
David Culver, Senior Vice President of public affairs at the US Cannabis Council, told the publication: “The president’s campaign politics dictate, in my mind, that we’re going to see a decision before the election, for sure, simply because they’ve already started to focus on the work they’ve done on cannabis reform, and the rescheduling piece of it is going to be the centerpiece.”
