Matt Gaetz Pushes DEA Chief Milgram To Commit To Request Marijuana Review Timeline From HHS

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) and Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.) pushed the DEA chief on the agency's plans to remove marijuana from its status as a Schedule I drug on Thursday in a House Judiciary hearing on Thursday.

DEA Administrator Anne Milgram told the Subcommittee on Crime and Federal Government Surveillance that the agency has “not been given a specific timeline” to review and reevaluate marijuana’s classification, but committed to requesting one from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), reported The Hill. 

In Oct. 2022, President Biden called on the HHS to reevaluate the scheduling of marijuana.

The DEA needs a recommendation from the HHS to conduct its own evaluation process before coming to a scheduling decision, according to Milgram.

“We have constant conversations with HHS and with FDA, but we have not been given a specific timeline,” Milgram said.  

Gaetz’s seemed perplexed that no DEA recommendation or other review materials have been received from the HHS as yet.

“That’s unsettling, isn’t it? When you don’t even know a timeline, it doesn’t really make it seem like something’s front of mind,” Gaetz said to Milgram, then asked is she would request that timeline from the HHS, to which she responded, “I will ask.”

The congresseman asked if the DEA had any reason to oppose the removal of cannabis from its Schedule I status. Milgram said that she “couldn’t prejudge it at this point in time” without the recommendation from HHS and the DEA's analysis.

Rep. Cohen supported Gaetz’s stance on the matter, calling the federal discourse around marijuana legalization “governmental gibberish,” and noting that “the government has messed this up forever.”