DEA nominee calls cannabis rescheduling ‘one of my first priorities’

OH, DEA
DEA nominee Terrance Cole calls rescheduling ‘one of my first priorities’

Signs of life: Terrance Cole, President Trump’s nominee to lead the Drug Enforcement Administration, on Wednesday said restarting the hearings on whether to reclassify cannabis as a Schedule III drug would be “one of my first priorities,” if confirmed.

But Cole declined to specifically endorse the proposed rule change. When pressed by Sen. Alex Padilla (D-CA), Cole said he didn’t know if he was committed to the change.

“I’m leaving the door open to studying everything that’s been done so far, so I can make a determination,” Cole said. Cole answered questions during his confirmation hearing in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee. 

What they’re saying: “We see this as a clear signal that the president is open to practical reforms that resonate with a broad swath of the American public. His campaign remarks on the issue last fall struck a chord with millions, and this latest development suggests a willingness to follow through,” The US Cannabis Roundtable, an industry trade group, said. 

Back up for a second: Cannabis, as you all know, is considered a Schedule I drug with no approved medicinal use and a high potential for abuse by the federal government. 

This classification obviously does not comport with reality, so former President Biden directed the Department of Health and Human Services to begin the process to reclassify cannabis to Schedule III.

While not a panacaea for the industry or advocates, it would be the biggest shift in federal drug policy since the Nixon Administration, and would do away with the 280E tax.

But the process, which was supposed to kick off with a hearing in January, has since stalled under the Trump Administration.

On the campaign trail, Trump spoke in favor of rescheduling but has yet to address the issue as President. His base is increasingly supportive of federal reform, however: Fifty-three percent of Republicans support legalization, according to a recent poll. 

And more: Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) said during the hearing that, to him, it is “pretty clear” that most states are going to legalize cannabis at some level. 

He asked Cole if he was open to forming a “working group” to study the state-federal disconnect on cannabis law. Cole said he was, and that “we need to stay ahead of it.” 

-JB

“I just want everybody that drops in the draft for whatever character concerns, if it ever pans out, they should just do that exact same character concern,” Former NFL player Jason Kelce said on his podcast addressing his brother Travis’s past marijuana use. “Like, you should have just walked into signing your second deal with a blunt in your hand smoking it as a sign of the paper.”

“I'm not condoning smoking weed, but unless you sign a multimillion-year deal you wanna say ‘f--- you’ to all the people that doubted you because you did smoke weed.”

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