“This is the Judgment Day that we all predicted while sharing a conspiratorial joint in the dark days of prohibition. It’s surreal to see our fears manifesting in real time.” By Deb Tharp, NuggMD Politico recently published an extensive Q&A with Howard Sklamberg, a former top Food and Drug Administration (FDA) official who currently works […]| Marijuana Moment
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has released a highly redacted version of a brief letter to the head of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) regarding the agency’s marijuana rescheduling recommendation. The letter, obtained via Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request by Law360 reporter Sam Reisman, confirmed certain previously reported details such […]| Marijuana Moment
The governors of six U.S. states—Colorado, Illinois, New York, New Jersey, Maryland and Louisiana—sent a letter to President Joe Biden (D) on Tuesday urging the administration to reschedule marijuana to Schedule III of the Controlled Substances Act by the end of this year. The move, they say, will provide economic and tax benefits for cannabis […]| Marijuana Moment
If the U.S. government moves marijuana to Schedule III of the Controlled Substance Act (CSA)—as the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has now formally recommended—the shift could have profound implications for all sorts of cannabis-related issues, ranging from research to business taxes to U.S. Postal Service (USPS) mailing rules. In the aftermath of […]| Marijuana Moment
Just one in ten Americans say that marijuana should remain completely illegal, according to a new Pew Research Center poll. The survey, published on Tuesday, found that an “overwhelming share of U.S. adults” (89 percent) feel that cannabis should be legal for either medical or recreational purposes. Among those, 59 percent say it should be […]| Marijuana Moment
More than three months after news leaked that the U.S. Health and Human Services Department (HHS) was recommending that marijuana be moved to Schedule III under the federal Controlled Substances Act (CSA), the agency has finally released a tranche of documents related to its recommendation and the detailed review it undertook on cannabis’s accepted medical […]| Marijuana Moment
The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) is telling lawmakers that it reserves “the final authority” to make any scheduling decision on marijuana following an ongoing review, regardless of what the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recommends. In a letter sent to Congressional Cannabis Caucus co-chair Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR), DEA Acting Chief of […]| Marijuana Moment
A coalition of 31 bipartisan House lawmakers has sent a letter to the head of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), urging the agency to take into account congressional and state marijuana legalization efforts as it carries out a review into cannabis scheduling. They also criticized the limitations of simple rescheduling as they push for complete […]| Marijuana Moment
A coalition of 12 Democratic state attorneys general is urging the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to move forward with federal marijuana rescheduling, calling the policy change a “public safety imperative.” In a letter led by Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser (D) that was sent to DEA Administrator Anne Milgram on Friday, the top state law […]| Marijuana Moment
Six former Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) heads and five former White House drug czars have sent a letter to the attorney general and current DEA administrator, voicing opposition to the top federal health agency’s recommendation to reschedule marijuana. They also made a questionable claim about the relationship between drug schedules and criminal penalties in a […]| Marijuana Moment
