A federal lawsuit has increased pressure on the U.S. Health and Human Services Department to release a letter that is at the heart of the Biden Administration’s recent recommendations for the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).
Matthew Zorn, an attorney, filed a complaint in U.S. District Court, Washington, D.C., on Friday. He claims that the letter has “become a matter of public importance” and requests the court order HHS to release “improperly kept agency records.”
Bloomberg News reported on August 30, despite the fact that it had not been made public, that there was an ostensible rescheduling letter from HHS Assistant Sectary for Health Rachel Levine, to DEA Administrator Anne Milgram. A HHS spokesperson confirmed the same day as the article to Marijuana Moment, that the department had “provided their scheduling recommendation for marijuana to DEA on August 29th 2023.”
Plaintiff Zorn requested the letter in question through the HHS’s online portal the day after the news broke. In his lawsuit, he claims that the department failed to respond in a timely and lawful manner.
In a series brief paragraphs, the complaint claims that HHS has “not produced the requested records” and “didn’t make a timely decision within 20 days.”
Plaintiff requests expedited treatment
HHS failed to make a timely decision on the expedited treatment.
Plaintiff requests court order ordering HHS produce requested records to Plaintiff
Zorn asks for the court to order HHS to speed up his request, and to direct them to “immediately produce the requested records” on their Substack site where Zorn first revealed his new lawsuit.
Despite a slew news coverage and industry comments on the potential to reschedule marijuana to Schedule III in the Controlled Substances Act, no one other than the government and Bloomberg News appears to have obtained or seen the rescheduling recommendations.
Zorn said in an interview with Marijuana Moment that “this document is one the most important government documents, but it does not seem like anyone is fighting to get it.” Zorn said that he is aware of journalists who want it, but “I am not aware of any cannabis industry action” to make this letter public.
Marijuana Moment has filed a FOIA request after the first reports of the existence of the letter.
Zorn said that while the rescheduling is usually done internally, the government had invited the public’s interest by confirming news reports via a post on social media at 4:20 p.m.
I am pleased to announce that @HHSGov, after reviewing the data and the science, has responded to @POTUS’s directive for me to give a recommendation to the DEA regarding the scheduling of marijuana.
We have worked hard to complete a scientific assessment and share it as quickly as possible. pic.twitter.com/p84x8p07sP
— Secretary Xavier Becerra 30 August 2023
Zorn said that since then, investors, industry groups and advocates have been scrambling to understand the implications of this proposed change. He was surprised at the amount of speculation that has taken place over a document so few people have seen.
He said: “You’ve got senators who are putting forth legislation to block this. You’ve also got [Congressional Research Service]. I have never, for the life of my, seen so many people writing about something they don’t even have.”
Zorn said that to understand the future, it is important to know why HHS reached this conclusion. I don’t think other companies outside of the cannabis industry would accept something like this. “You hear about this monumental event, and they just blindfold themselves.”
Zorn argued that because HHS was recommending that marijuana be removed for the first-time from Schedule I, there must be something new in this document from a legal perspective. You know, in the past every time this issue was raised, HHS and DEA said ‘no medical use accepted.’ Something has changed.”
He agreed with Kevin Sabet’s criticism, leader of the prohibitionist organization Smart Approaches to Marijuana.
Sabet was “like, ‘This doesn’t look like a serious procedure,'” Zorn stated. “I even retweeted that tweet.”
Is it not unusual for a *recommendation* to be announced with such fanfare, and at 4:20? This is turning into parody. https://t.co/5Cu4GW7Omm
Kevin Sabet August 31 2023 HTML0
Zorn said to Marijuana Moment, “This isn’t how a serious process appears.” “I mean, this is based on data and science. Show us the data, right?” Do not show us PR and tweets.
He added, “Honestly, no one said the administration was required to make this process public.” “But, once they made this a process public, I believe it owes more to the public.”
The DEA has the power to reschedule cannabis, but recently, two Republican Senators introduced a bill which would strip that department of this authority. This bill would prevent all federal agencies from rescheduling marijuana without the approval of Congress.
Last month, 14 GOP legislators sent a letter urging DEA not to accept the marijuana rescheduling recommendations.
Rep. Greg Murphy, R-NC, is another federal legislator who has expressed “great concern” over the HHS guidelines. In a letter addressed to Secretary Becerra he listed eleven questions that he wanted answered by October 3. These included how HHS came up with its recommendation to reschedule, who was “consulted or contributed” to the recommendation, and what outside stakeholders were invited to the table.
Joe Biden, the President of the United States, requested that HHS review its scheduling late last year.
In March, Congressional Cannabis Caucus Co-chair Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-OR, along with 15 other members of Congress from both parties, sent a letter to Becerra, and Attorney General Merrick Garrland, , demanding transparency in the Cannabis Scheduling Review.
The process has so far been anything but transparent.
At a House Judiciary Committee hearing in July, DEA Administrator Anne Milgram told Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) that the president “had sent a letter to the secretary of HHS and to the attorney general to ask for the scheduling–descheduling process to begin.”
Gaetz has requested a copy of the correspondence that was sent between Biden and HHS regarding the rescheduling request. Zorn also filed a Freedom of Information Act request. Gaetz expressed concerns that moving marijuana from Schedule II to Schedule III could lead to the pharmaceutical industry overtaking the cannabis industry .
HHS claimed in August that it had no record whatsoever of this letter . The DEA chief said in recent weeks that she misspoke by referring to a literal letter.
Biden has not personally commented on HHS’s recommendation to reschedule marijuana. However, the White House Press Secretary did state that that the president had been “very clear,” that he has “always supported legalizing marijuana for medical use.”
Biden’s “always” supporting cannabis reform is not true. As a Senator, he championed a number of pieces of legislation which intensified the war on drugs.
The rescheduling of marijuana would not allow federal access to the current medical cannabis programs at state level, but it would open up the research on the plant. This would have important implications in the marijuana industry.
The recommendation of the top health agency has been praised by lawmakers from both parties. has described the recommendation as an important step on the road to federal legalization. has claimed credit, pointing out their years of activism around marijuana reform.
Moving marijuana from Schedule I into Schedule III could be a political move that would allow the President to claim that he has helped to accomplish a major change. It may also facilitate an administrative review which will lead to rescheduling, more than 50 year after the Government launched its War on Drugs and placed cannabis under the CSA’s most restrictive category.
This change does not fulfill Biden’s promise to decriminalize cannabis.
This is How the Marijuana Banking Bill was Amended during this week’s Senate Committee Markup
The post Lawyer Sues Feds for Copy of Biden Administration Marijuana Rescheduling Letter first appeared on Marijuana Moment.
