DEA Sets December Hearing on Marijuana Rescheduling

A proposal to downgrade marijuana’s drug classification will be the subject of a public hearing later this year.

In a recent Federal Register notice, the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) and the Justice Department jointly announced the hearing, which will be at 9 a.m. Dec. 2 at the DEA’s hearing facility in Arlington.

This will be the second time that regulators solicited feedback on the plan to reclassify pot as a Schedule III drug, after receiving more than 43,000 comments on the initial proposal. The proposed rescheduling from a current Class I drug was based on a Health and Human Services finding that marijuana is not as dangerous or impactful as other Class I drugs, such as heroin.

DEA’s proposal has roiled the transportation industry, due to its potential impact on drug testing, although Transportation Department Secretary Pete Buttigieg insisted that there would be no issues.