GOP Congressman Seeks To Undermine Marijuana Rescheduling Process With Amendment To Fentanyl Bill


A GOP congressman has filed an modification that’s geared toward undermining the continued marijuana rescheduling course of.

The measure, which Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-GA) is looking for to connect to a invoice targeted on fentanyl, would strip the U.S. legal professional basic’s authority to facilitate drug scheduling selections and block using a revised scientific evaluation customary for “currently accepted medical use” that was utilized in a still-pending hashish rescheduling proposal.

Clyde filed the modification forward of a House Rules Committee on the Halt All Lethal Trafficking of Fentanyl Act, or HALT Fentanyl Act. It’s at the moment unclear if the Republican-controlled panel will make the modification to ensure that a ground vote.

While the underlying invoice would additionally streamline analysis into Schedule I medicine like marijuana and sure psychedelics—along with growing penalties associated to fentanyl-related offenses—the congressman’s modification would stipulate that the legal professional basic delegate scheduling selections to the administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), additional specifying that she or he “may not delegate any such functions [of drug scheduling] to any other officer or employee of the Department of Justice.”

This seems to be attentive to criticism from anti-cannabis legislators concerning the course of initiated below the Biden administration to maneuver marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule III of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA).

Historically, it’s been the pinnacle of DEA who indicators of on a proposed rescheduling guidelines. In this case, then-Attorney General Merrick Garland accredited it, contributing to suspicions that DEA management opposed the reform, regardless of serving because the designated “proponent” of the rule.

Last May, Clyde and Rep. Ben Cline (R-VA) demanded that then-DEA Administrator Anne Milgram answer questions about why she broke “decades of precedent” by not signing a proposed marijuana rescheduling rule.

Apparently to that finish, Clyde’s modification to the HALT Act states: “Before a proposed or final rule relating to the scheduling of any substance under this Act is published in the Federal Register, such rule shall be signed by the Administrator of the Drug Enforcement Agency and such rule shall have no force or effect unless such rule is so signed.”

That might be an issue for advocates below the present management of DEA below President Donald Trump. Acting Administrator Derek Maltz subscribes to the “gateway drug” theory for marijuana and believes most individuals dwelling in states which have legalized hashish will proceed to acquire it from illicit sources comparable to cartels resulting from excessive taxes in regulated markets, for instance.

The Clyde amendment additionally takes intention on the revised evaluation course of that led to the Schedule III suggestion for hashish, instructing that any dedication a few drug’s medical worth “meets the five criteria specified in the rule” that was used to disclaim a petition to reschedule hashish that was printed by DEA in 1992.

In different phrases, the proposal would reinstate extra stringent evaluation standards that has saved hashish in Schedule I for many years.

In the previous, the federal government has relied on that five-part check to find out whether or not a substance meets the usual for having at the moment accepted medical use—one that appears at a drug’s chemistry, accessible well being information and different particulars. But in 2023, when contemplating the Biden administration’s proposed rescheduling of marijuana, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) launched a brand new, simplified two-step evaluation that led it to conclude hashish belongs in Schedule III.

Last May, DOJ’s Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) said the prior five-part test was “impermissibly narrow” and stated the two-part evaluation “is sufficient to establish that a drug has CAMU even if the drug has not been approved by FDA and would not satisfy DEA’s five-part test.”


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Meanwhile, though the HALT Act is primarily meant to escalate criminalization over fentanyl-related offenses, advocates have identified that the laws—an earlier model of which cleared a congressional committee in March 2023—would additionally revise necessities for researchers involved in learning any Schedule I medicine.

The intention is to expedite registrations for research into Schedule I medicine and permit for restricted manufacturing by researchers, which may handle some issues surrounding how the strict classification of marijuana, psychedelics and different substances has impeded science.

Some of the analysis provisions of the invoice are just like these contained in a marijuana-focused measure that then-President Joe Biden signed into law in 2022, giving the U.S. legal professional basic 60 days to both approve a given utility or request supplemental info from a potential analysis applicant. It additionally creates a extra environment friendly pathway for researchers who request bigger portions of hashish.

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Photo courtesy of Chris Wallis // Side Pocket Images.

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