DEA Judge Pauses Broader Marijuana Rescheduling Over Watchdog Findings
10/09/2026
Chief Administrative Law Judge Derek C. Julius issued the stay on September 29, after a September 28 motion from DUID Victim Voices, pain physician Kenneth Finn, and the National Drug and Alcohol Screening Association.
Those three groups, all of which testified against the change at the summer hearings, asked the tribunal to admit a September 23 Government Accountability Office report and to allow supplemental briefing before any recommended decision goes to the Drug Enforcement Administration. Julius did not grant that request. He said the case should sit until the motion is resolved, and he ordered the government to answer by October 13.
An April final rule already moved FDA-approved marijuana drug products, and marijuana covered by a state medical license, into Schedule III. That partial shift did not settle the separate question of whether the rest of the plant should follow. The broader proposal traces to a May 2024 notice of proposed rulemaking. Hearings on that notice stalled in early 2025.
In December 2025, President Trump signed Executive Order 14370 directing the Justice Department to finish the Schedule III rulemaking as quickly as federal law allows. Merits testimony ran from June 29 through July 15, and post-hearing briefs followed in August. Until late September, the next step was Julius’s recommendation to the DEA administrator, who would still have to issue the final order.
The GAO report does not decide whether marijuana has an accepted medical use or how it should be scheduled. Auditors found that DEA has no written policies spelling out roles, responsibilities, and procedures for drug scheduling, and that FDA lacks procedures for how staff should evaluate substances and build scheduling recommendations.
GAO also urged FDA and the National Institutes of Health to update an outdated agreement on those recommendations. Opponents of the move argue those gaps undercut the process that produced the Schedule III proposal. Groups that favor rescheduling, including NORML, were not admitted as parties and cannot file in the case.
Reference
Those three groups, all of which testified against the change at the summer hearings, asked the tribunal to admit a September 23 Government Accountability Office report and to allow supplemental briefing before any recommended decision goes to the Drug Enforcement Administration. Julius did not grant that request. He said the case should sit until the motion is resolved, and he ordered the government to answer by October 13.
An April final rule already moved FDA-approved marijuana drug products, and marijuana covered by a state medical license, into Schedule III. That partial shift did not settle the separate question of whether the rest of the plant should follow. The broader proposal traces to a May 2024 notice of proposed rulemaking. Hearings on that notice stalled in early 2025.
In December 2025, President Trump signed Executive Order 14370 directing the Justice Department to finish the Schedule III rulemaking as quickly as federal law allows. Merits testimony ran from June 29 through July 15, and post-hearing briefs followed in August. Until late September, the next step was Julius’s recommendation to the DEA administrator, who would still have to issue the final order.
The GAO report does not decide whether marijuana has an accepted medical use or how it should be scheduled. Auditors found that DEA has no written policies spelling out roles, responsibilities, and procedures for drug scheduling, and that FDA lacks procedures for how staff should evaluate substances and build scheduling recommendations.
GAO also urged FDA and the National Institutes of Health to update an outdated agreement on those recommendations. Opponents of the move argue those gaps undercut the process that produced the Schedule III proposal. Groups that favor rescheduling, including NORML, were not admitted as parties and cannot file in the case.
Reference
