/>iThere’s a great scene towards the end of The Shawshank Redemption – which Budding Trend readers know is one of the greatest films ever made – where the character played by Tim Robbins encourages the Morgan Freeman character: “[I]f you’ve come this far, maybe you’re willing to come a little further.”
If you follow the marijuana industry, you could be forgiven for thinking it has felt like forever since the initial formal announcement that the federal government was considering rescheduling marijuana. After all, it was back in August 2023 that the Department of Health and Human Services recommended that the DEA consider rescheduling marijuana after determining the drug had a currently accepted medical use in the U.S. and that it was less dangerous than other Schedule I drugs.
Then in May of this year, the Department of Justice announced formal rulemaking that would reschedule marijuana to Schedule III and further announced that it would accept public comments. More than 40,000 comments came in.
Recently, the DEA announced in a notice made public Monday that it will finally hold a hearing on the attorney general’s proposal to loosen restrictions on marijuana. The hearing is scheduled for December 2, 2024.
If you’ve come this far, maybe you’ll come a little bit further?
We’ve written about the issue on several occasions. Needless to say there is no shortage of high-powered, well-heeled organizations expressing their opinions on the matter.
There are many on both sides of the issue that would have preferred the decision on rescheduling – or at least the public hearing – to come before the elections in November. Some wanted the issue to be front and center in the campaigns (both at the state and federal level), while others simply want finality on an issue that will fundamentally shape the future of all aspects of the cannabis industry. That was probably never going to happen given federal regulators’ natural instinct against making significant political decisions on the eve of elections. And, as a practical matter, the politics of rescheduling are overwhelmingly in favor of a change. That is certainly the case when it comes to the two major political nominees for president.
Advocates for and against rescheduling would do well to remember what we learned in The Shawshank Redemption: “Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things – and no good thing ever dies.” I will be hoping this blog finds you and finds you well.
We’ll have more as we get closer to the hearing. The stakes could hardly be more consequential.
