Why Did The Deptartment Of Health And Human Services Redact Its Marijuana Recommendation Letter To The DEA?

The Department of Health and Human Services disclosed a heavily redacted letter sent to the DEA concerning its recommendations for marijuana rescheduling. The exact contents of the message, including the actual scheduling recommendation and an attached scientific review, were withheld.

The HHS letter, sent to DEA administrator Anne Milgram at the end of August, was obtained via a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request by Law360 reporter Sam Reisman, according to Marijuana Moment, which also filed a FOIA request for a copy of the letter and has yet to receive a response.

Read more: Health Officials To DEA: Ease Federal Restrictions On Cannabis – Will This Set Stage For Legalization?

The HHS is meant to be advising the DEA to ease restrictions on cannabis, which presumably will involve moving marijuana from its current Schedule I classification to Schedule III drug under the Controlled Substances Act. This recommendation to look into a schedule change was made by President Joe Biden shortly after his October 2022 pardon of 6,500 federal cannabis convictions.

Read more: Biden Announces Pardons For All Federal Marijuana Possession Convictions

Former DEA Chiefs Get Their 2 Cents In

Six former DEA heads and five former White House drug czars sent a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland and the DEA’s Milgram in mid-October arguing that reclassifying marijuana would "supersize" the industry through tax relief and normalization.

A separate coalition of 14 Republican legislators in September also called on the DEA to dismiss HHS’s recommendation and maintain marijuana's restrictive CSA classification, which puts cannabis in the same category as heroin, meth and LSD. It also defines marijuana as having no known medical benefits.

What Will The DEA Do?

According to the Congressional Research Service, which provides Congress with research and analysis, the DEA will most likely follow the HHS’s recommendations, although it noted the DEA can overrule suggestions to reschedule cannabis because it has ultimate jurisdiction over the Controlled Substances Act.

As the debate on marijuana’s legal status heats up with plenty of political divisions, the DEA's final decision carries significant implications for federal drug policy.

"It will be very interesting to see how DEA responds to this [HHS] recommendation, given the agency's historic opposition to any potential change in cannabis' categorization under federal law,” said Paul Armentano, deputy director of the cannabis legalization group NORML.

Photo: Drug Enforcement Administration handout.