Tag Archives: controlled substances act

Some Odds and Ends – Update for June 4, 2026

Leave a comment

We post news and comment on federal criminal justice issues, focused primarily on trial and post-conviction matters, legislative initiatives, and sentencing issues.

NOTES FROM ALL OVER

Gunning for Restoration:  Fourteen months ago, the Dept of Justice restored rights to several people prohibited by 18 USC § 922(g) from owning guns (including actor Mel Gibson). DOJ announced that it was planning a program to restore firearms rights for nonviolent offenders. A rulemaking proceeding followed, with a comment period that ended seven months ago.

Last Thursday, the DOJ announced a new batch of rights restorations. However, it was limited to just four people, and the DOJ backdated it to the tenure of former Attorney General Pam Bondi. The announcement said nothing about the DOJ’s plan to standardize the rights restoration process.

Gun law and policy newsletter The Reload reported last week that “Thursday’s filing shows little progress, but it does connect to one of the overarching issues with the DOJ’s rights restoration approach. That’s because of the four men former AG Bondi picked, one had filed a Second Amendment lawsuit challenging his firearms prohibition.”

The Reload, Analysis: Where is DOJ’s Gun Rights Restoration Plan? (May 29, 2026)

Who Can Trust DOJ?  A jaw-dropping mea culpa played out in federal district court in Chicago last week, as the US Attorney himself appeared before US District Judge April Perry to apologize for what The New York Times called a “remarkable list of grand jury errors in a case that was dismissed against four Democratic activists about to face trial for impeding the police during a protest last fall at a suburban immigration detention facility.”

The Assistant US Attorney handling the grand jury talked to jurors outside of the courtroom, coaching them to indict. The government dismissed several grand jurors deemed insufficiently willing to approve the indictment. Then, the AUSA doctored the grand jury transcripts to hide what he had done.

The Times said, “[T]he mistakes also pointed to a more important problem: As Mr. Trump has demanded more and more charges against those he perceives as his opponents, prosecutors have felt pressure to push weak cases through grand juries. And that, in turn, has led to an erosion in faith in the Justice Department by both the grand jurors themselves and the judges considering the cases.”

“Your sole goal is to do justice. Your client is justice itself,” Judge Perry told the US attorney. “I do believe deeply in the presumption of regularity and that most government attorneys are doing the best they can to do the right thing. That trust has been broken.”

The New York Times, As Trump Politicizes Justice Dept., Prosecutors Struggle With Grand Juries (May 26, 2026)

Free the Weed: In a May 22 letter to President Donald Trump and Pardon Czar Alice Marie Johnson, 28 Democratic senators and representatives, along with Bernie Sanders (I-VT), asked the administration to pardon everyone in federal prison for non-violent marijuana crimes.

The letter notes that the Administration’s decision to move marijuana from Schedule I under the Controlled Substances Act to Schedule III “does not provide relief for anyone currently in federal prison from a marijuana conviction.” The letter observed that the Sentencing Commission estimates that about 3,000 people are serving time for pot trafficking offenses.

The legislators wrote, “The Bureau of Prisons (BOP) is plagued by capacity issues, both overcrowded 7 and understaffed.8 While it won’t solve the structural issues that have led us here, we believe that commuting the sentences of people with marijuana offenses would both address the overly harsh sentences while simultaneously allowing BOP to focus resources where they are needed most.”

Letter to Donald Trump (May 22, 2026)

Sentencing Commission Quick Facts Released: The US Sentencing Commission regularly releases “Quick Facts,” short data documents that make for an interesting read as they fulfill the USSC’s goal of giving “readers basic facts about a single area of federal crime in an easy-to-read, two-page format.”

The Commission has issued a spate of new “Quick Facts” publications based on its latest Fiscal Year data.  The newest set of postings by the USSC on the “Quick Facts” page covering a range of offenses and offenders, including Guidelines Career Offenders, illegal reentry, alien smuggling, drug trafficking (including separate publications focused on fentanyl, fentanyl analogue and methamphetamine trafficking), theft and fraud, healthcare fraud, money laundering and government benefits fraud.

USSC, Quick Facts (May 19, 2026)

~ Thomas L. Root

Trump Rumored to Plan Marijuana Rescheduling – Update for December 15, 2025

Leave a comment

We post news and comment on federal criminal justice issues, focused primarily on trial and post-conviction matters, legislative initiatives, and sentencing issues.

TRUMP TO LOOSEN POT SCHEDULING?

You may recall that President Joe Biden made a big deal about rescheduling marijuana from a Schedule I controlled substance to Schedule III. This de-escalation of weed would have loosened a lot of the Controlled Substances Act restrictions and might have led to changes in mandatory minimum sentences and easing of marijuana Guidelines.

Biden didn’t get it done by the end of 2024 as promised, and his departure from the White House seemed to have brought the effort to a standstill.

President Trump ruminated about easing pot regulation this past summer. Late last week, rumors exploded in Washington that President Trump is expected to issue an executive order as soon as today that would allow for reclassification of marijuana, a White House official (who remained anonymous because he was not authorized to speak about it) told reporters.

Trump is expected to push the government to reduce regulation of the plant and its derivatives to the same level as some common prescription painkillers and other drugs, the Washington Post reported. The anticipated executive order is expected to direct federal agencies to pursue reclassification, the people said.

Reclassification will not decriminalize marijuana, but it would ease barriers to research and may drive Congress and the Sentencing Commission to reconsider sentence levels for the drug.

Although the President cannot reclassify pot by executive order, he can direct the Dept. of Justice to cancel a pending administrative hearing and issue the final rule.

The Post said that in a call last Wednesday between Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), Johnson expressed skepticism about the plan, but Trump “ended the call appearing ready to go ahead.”

CNBC, Trump expected to sign executive order to reclassify marijuana as soon as Monday, source tells CNBC; pot stocks surge (December 12, 2025)

Washington Post, Trump seeks to cut restrictions on marijuana through planned order (December 11, 2025)

~ Thomas L. Root

Everybody’s for Pot – Update for September 16, 2024

Leave a comment

We post news and comment on federal criminal justice issues, focused primarily on trial and post-conviction matters, legislative initiatives, and sentencing issues.

FEDERAL MARIJUANA REFORM GAINS TRACTION

marijuana160818Donald Trump last week signaled support for a federal policy shift to reclassify marijuana as a less dangerous drug, putting his position in line with that of his Democratic opponent, Kamala Harris.

Unlike Harris, Trump has not gone so far as to endorse repealing federal pot prohibition, a move that voters overwhelmingly favor. But his statements on marijuana reform suggest he recognizes the political potency of this issue.

According to the US Cannabis Council, this marks the first time that both major-party presidential candidates have supported broad cannabis reform.

Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, posted on his social media platform last week that “I believe it is time to end needless arrests and incarcerations of adults for small amounts of marijuana for personal use… We must also implement smart regulations, while providing access for adults to safe, tested product.”

Trump also has said he supports the Biden administration’s plan to move marijuana from Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) – the most restrictive category – to Schedule III, which includes prescription drugs such as ketamine, Tylenol with codeine, and anabolic steroids. “As President,” Trump wrote, “we will continue to focus on research to unlock the medical uses of marijuana [as] a Schedule 3 drug.”

That reclassification would facilitate cannabis research and be a financial boon to the cannabis industry. However, the sale of marijuana would remain a criminal offense under the CSA.

marijuana221111When Biden proposed rescheduling in October 2022, he promised to complete the job by the end of 2024. Two weeks ago, the Drug Enforcement Administration announced that it would hold a public hearing on the marijuana rescheduling ion December 2. That makes completing the rescheduling before 2025 unlikely.

Last week, The Last Prisoner Project and bipartisan 420 Unity Coalition partners launched the #Countdown4Clemency campaign, calling on Biden to commute the sentences of an estimated 3,000 prisoners doing time for marijuana convictions.

“Time is running out on President Biden’s term, but it is not too late for him to undo the harms inflicted on families impacted by cannabis criminalization,” LPP Executive Director Sarah Gersten said. “With his clemency powers, the president has the opportunity to right history and restore justice by fulfilling his promise that no one should be in jail for cannabis.”

Associated Press, Trump signals support for reclassifying pot as a less dangerous drug, in line with Harris’ position (September 9, 2024)

Reason, Trump Endorses Federal Marijuana Reforms and Reiterates His Support for Legalizing Pot in Florida (September 9, 2024)

#Countdown4Clemency Campaign Calls on Biden to Keep Promise, Free 3,000 People Incarcerated for Cannabis (September 10, 2024)

Federal Register, Schedules of Controlled Substances: Rescheduling of Marijuana (89 FR 70148, August 29, 2024)

– Thomas L. Root

Feds To Reschedule Marijuana As Prescription Drug – Update for May 3, 2024

Leave a comment

We post news and comment on federal criminal justice issues, focused primarily on trial and post-conviction matters, legislative initiatives, and sentencing issues.

MARIJUANA BECOMING OFFICIALLY ‘COOL’

mrnatural240503The Justice Department last Tuesday said that it had recommended easing restrictions on marijuana in what could amount to a major change in federal policy.

A DOJ spokeswoman said the proposed rule, which hasn’t yet been made public, would downgrade marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule III, making it obtainable with a prescription.

The change does not end the criminalization of the drug. However, it is a significant shift in the government’s view of the safety and use of marijuana for medical purposes and reflects President Biden’s effort to liberalize marijuana policy in a way that puts it more in line with the public as increasingly more Americans favor legalizing the drug. The proposal would recognize the medical uses of marijuana and acknowledge it has less potential for abuse than some of the nation’s more dangerous drugs.

Rescheduling would not legalize marijuana outright for recreational use. But there can be little doubt that such a change–recreational cannabis (the politically popular term for marijuana) is now legal in 24 states–is coming.

The change may also lead to beneficial changes in Section 2D1.1 of the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines, where the base offense level for marijuana could drop in response to its falling from Schedule I to III.

In October 2022, Biden pardoned thousands of people convicted of simple marijuana possession under federal law and called upon regulators to review whether the drug should be reclassified, saying “it doesn’t make sense” that the government controls pot more tightly than cocaine or fentanyl.

marijuanahell190918Once the Office of Management and Budget signs off, the DEA will take public comment on the plan to move marijuana from its Schedule I–alongside heroin and LSD–to Schedule III, alongside ketamine and some anabolic steroids. After public comment and review by an administrative judge, the agency will publish the final rule.

“Today, the Attorney General circulated a proposal to reclassify marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule III,” DOJ Director of Public Affairs Xochitl Hinojosa said in a statement. “Once published by the Federal Register, it will initiate a formal rulemaking process as prescribed by Congress in the Controlled Substances Act.”

The Los Angeles Times said, “Late last year, Biden pardoned people who were convicted of using marijuana on federal land. That tiny step was merely a down payment on his promise of decriminalization. So is the Justice Department’s most recent move. The federal government should pick up the pace.”

Some in the government may have done so. Last Wednesday, Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer, (D-NY), Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden (D-OR), and Sen Cory Booker (D-NJ) reintroduced the Cannabis Administration and Opportunity Act, legislation to end federal marijuana prohibition by removing it totally from the Controlled Substances Act.

The bill also aims to empower states to create their own cannabis laws; ensure federal regulations protect public health and safety; and prioritize restorative and economic justice, according to the sponsors.

marijuana221111While the DEA’s move to reclassify marijuana is a “necessary step” that’s “long overdue,” Schumer said, it’s not the end of the story. “It’s not all we need to do,” he said. “It’s time for Congress to wake up to the times and do its part by passing the cannabis reform that most Americans have wished for. It’s past time for Congress to catch up with public opinion and to catch up with the science.”

New York Times, Justice Dept. Recommends Easing Restrictions on Marijuana (April 30, 2024)

Wall Street Journal, Biden Administration Aims to Reclassify Marijuana as Less Dangerous Drug (April 30, 2024)

Associated Press, US poised to ease restrictions on marijuana in historic shift, but it’ll remain controlled substance (April 30, 2024)

Los Angeles Times, Editorial: Reclassifying marijuana is not decriminalization, but is a welcome step in that direction (May 1, 2024)

Cannabis Business Times, Senate Democrats Introduce Bill to Federally Legalize Cannabis (May 1, 2024)

S.4226, A bill to decriminalize and deschedule cannabis, to provide for reinvestment in certain persons adversely impacted by the War on Drugs, to provide for expungement of certain cannabis offenses, and for other purposes (May 1, 2024)

– Thomas L. Root