DEA hearings continue. Here’s what happened inside the room. 👀

DEA
DEA hearings continue. Here’s what happened. 👀

The DEA hearings to consider whether to move recreational cannabis to Schedule III continue. 

What happened: On Tuesday, Dr. Corey Burchman testified to the efficacy of medical cannabis for pain management and helping wean patients off of more dangerous opioids as a witness for the government supporting the rule, according to a number of sources in the room who I spoke with.

Burchman has written for Cultivated before, which you should read » 

Why it matters: By definition, there only needs to be one accepted medical use for cannabis to be removed from Schedule I. That is the Currently Accepted Medical Use (CAMU) test the federal government uses to establish a drug’s classification. 

Opponents to rescheduling spent much of Tuesday attacking the two-part test federal agencies used in 2023 to determine cannabis belongs in Schedule III. Previously, drugs were considered under a five-part framework.

While it is true that cannabis likely wouldn’t survive that five-part test, as the FDA’s Dr. Dominic Chiapperino testified, that’s not because cannabis is unsafe or has no accepted medical use. It’s because of a flaw in the five-part test’s ability to conform to a botanical with multiple efficacious compounds, like cannabis, rather than a traditional pharmaceutical which is a single molecule, among other reasons.

Robert Mikos, a Vanderbilt Law professor, wrote about how the five-part test amounts to a sort of “tyranny,” as it demanded large-scale clinical trials to remove a drug from Schedule I, but Schedule I classification prevents those trials from being conducted.

The two part test looks simply at whether there is widespread medical use and research supporting that. Given the fact that medical cannabis is legal in some form in over 40 states, and the plethora of research showing efficacy for pain management, the two part test is easily satisfied.

What they’re saying: Opponents to the rule, like Smart Approaches to Marijuana’s Kevin Sabet, say the switch to the two-part test is evidence of politics intervening in a scientific process.

But the Department of Justice itself found that the five-part test is “impermissibly narrow,” for new drugs. That, plus the hearing isn’t about the test. It’s about whether cannabis satisfies the agreed-upon test.

No matter how much Sabet and SAM screech about the rule change, it is the rule. Under the old test, cannabis could never satisfy the standard. That, and the DEA has used the new two-part test for other substances than cannabis, which undercuts SAM’s argument. 

The bottom line: An attorney in the room told me that the opponents argument is like “ships passing in the night,” given that their argument about the switch to the two-part test isn’t material to the case. 

What’s next: Burchman will be subject to cross-examination by attorneys opposed to the rule change tomorrow, and anti-cannabis groups will present their case.

Expect their knives to be sharpened after today, sources say. 

-JB

Jay talked to Alison Gordon of RIPPED about (not) chasing a big exit on Tuesday’s Cultivated Live.

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