DOJ Asks Federal Court To Further Delay Lawsuit On Marijuana Rescheduling Process As Trump Weighs Reform Proposal

The Department of Justice has agreed to further postpone a case challenging
the administrative process behind the marijuana rescheduling proposal being
considered by the Trump administration.

In a joint filing with the U.S. District Court for the Western District of
Washington, DOJ and plaintiff Panacea Plant Sciences (PPS) founder and CEO
David Heldreth said that, because there haven’t been any recent
advancements in the broader rescheduling issue, the separate litigation
related to administrative procedures should continue to be stayed through
the end of the year.

That is not necessarily a reflection of the status of the Trump
administration’s rescheduling process. Rather, it is directly responsive to
litigation over how the federal government approaches scheduling actions.
The president said late last month that he would be making a decision on
the overarching proposal to move marijuana to Schedule III of the
Controlled Substances Act (CSA) within weeks.

But for now, because the administrative hearing process remains stalled,
both DOJ and PPS told the court that the stay should be kept in place until
January 27, 2026, when another joint report from the parties will be due.

Last January, the court approved a prior stay request for the same reasons.
Then in June, the parties requested another stay that was granted, with a
joint report due by Monday. This filing is the latest iteration in the case.

“Because the administrative proceedings remain stayed, the parties
respectfully submit that the stay continues to be warranted,” it says. “And
to avoid conflicts around the holidays, the parties further propose to
submit another joint status report on whether the stay continues to be
warranted in the next 120 days, by January 27, 2026.”

Last year, PPS’s Heldreth filed the underlying lawsuit that laid out
several allegations against DEA, which he said warranted judicial
intervention in the agency’s hearings on DOJ’s proposal to move cannabis
from Schedule I to Schedule III of the CSA.

That followed now-retired DEA Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) John
Mulrooney’s prior denial of Panacea’s request to postpone rescheduling
hearing over the agency’s alleged “improper blocking” of witnesses.

In the original lawsuit, Heldreth had argued that the agency’s
now-postponed hearing should be stayed for four main reasons, including
alleged violations of a Clinton-era executive order requiring federal
bodies to consult with tribal entities on rulemaking decisions that impact
them, as well as the Regulatory Flexibility Act and Small Business
Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act.

The fate of rescheduling remains uncertain. While Trump endorsed the reform
on the campaign trail ahead of his second term, his more recent comments
about an imminent decision lacked specificity and any concrete sense of
whether he is still supportive of the policy change.

Industry stakeholders were energized over the weekend, however, when the
president shared a post on Sunday that showed a video from the
pro-rescheduling Commonwealth Project touting the health benefits of
hemp-derived CBD, particularly for seniors who may use it as an alternative
to traditional pharmaceuticals.

Meanwhile, a new poll shows that a majority of Americans don’t consider
marijuana dangerous, though most do think consuming cannabis increases the
likelihood that people will transition to using more dangerous drugs.

The poll is one of the latest temperature checks on American sentiment
toward drug policy as Trump weighs the rescheduling proposal.

And while a leading prohibitionist group, Smart Approaches to Marijuana
(SAM), recently claimed a poll they commissioned demonstrated majority
opposition to rescheduling, a policy change that Trump endorsed on the
campaign trail, the result flies in the face of multiple other national
surveys showing support for reform that goes beyond rescheduling.


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Another recent survey from the Coalition for Cannabis Policy, Education,
and Regulation (CPEAR), which was conducted by the firm Forbes Tate
Partners, showed that seven in 10 American voters want to see the end of
federal marijuana prohibition—and nearly half say they’d view the Trump
administration more favorably if it took action on the issue.

A poll released in June that Marijuana Moment partnered on with the
cannabis telehealth platform NuggMD showed that a majority of marijuana
consumers disapprove of the Trump administration’s actions on cannabis
policy to date, but there’s also a significant willingness among users to
shift their position if the federal government opts to reschedule or
legalize marijuana.

Earlier this year, meanwhile, a firm associated with Trump—Fabrizio, Lee &
Associates—also polled Americans on a series of broader marijuana policy
issues. Notably, it found that a majority of Republicans back cannabis
rescheduling—and, notably, they’re even more supportive of allowing states
to legalize marijuana without federal interference compared to the average
voter.

*Read the latest filing in the DOJ rescheduling process lawsuit below:*

*Photo elements courtesy of rawpixel and Philip Steffan.*

The post DOJ Asks Federal Court To Further Delay Lawsuit On Marijuana
Rescheduling Process As Trump Weighs Reform Proposal appeared first on Marijuana
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