DEA Comes Out Of The Shadows To Ensure Cannabis Rescheduling Process Is Not Being Done Under 'Shroud Of Secrecy'

The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) is actively seeking to dispel any illusions that its process for drug scheduling, in this case for cannabis, is opaque. An official said that the agency wants to correct “misperceptions” that it is functioning in secrecy, for which it has been roundly accused.

In a conversation on the DEA’s podcast series “Prevention Profiles: Take Five,” Rich Lucey, the senior prevention program manager, spoke with DEA pharmacologist Buki Ebeigbe about the marijuana scheduling process, reported Marijuana Moment's Kyle Jaeger on Thursday. This is the first-ever public discourse on the agency’s analysis of marijuana's Schedule I classification.

“I just think it's important for people to—again, going back to correcting misperceptions and really the issue of transparency and, by us even doing this podcast, just to help people understand the process,” Lucey said. “We don't want it to necessarily feel as if it's behind this shroud of secrecy, which I think then lends itself to this idea that it's a whole arbitrary process.”

The DEA’s silence beyond acknowledging the receipt of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) suggestion to reclassify marijuana has been a source of frustration for advocates and legislators, including co-chairs of the Congressional Cannabis Caucus Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA) and Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR), who have complained about the DEA's lack of transparency.

Lee and Blumenauer joined 31 bipartisan lawmakers in October 2023 in a letter to DEA administrator Anne Milgram, urging the agency to fully deschedule cannabis during its ongoing review.

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Growing Support For Legal Weed Amid Sluggish Govt Movement

Despite growing public support for legalization, as evidenced by a November 2023 Gallup poll, federal policy on cannabis has remained stagnant for decades. Rep. Lee attributes this delay to “political dynamics,” specifically partisan gridlock aimed at undermining political opponents rather than serving the public's interests.

Meanwhile, Ebeigbe said in the podcast that the process of writing the recommendation to be presented to Milgram is underway, adding that internal reviews normally take at least six months.

Given that more than six months have passed since the HHS provided its recommendation to the DEA, pressure is mounting for the agency to get a move on.

“Once that information is compiled and that document is written—that eight-factor document is written—it's reviewed through our internal process. Ultimately, the administrator will make a decision on where to place it—whether to change it or whether to remove it or whatever,” Ebeigbe said.

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Photo: DEA handout