DEA Sued Over Marijuana Rescheduling Process, Australian State Okays Drug Checking Program, More... (11/12/24)

Idaho activists have filed a ballot measure to legalize the possession and cultivation of personal use amounts of marijuana, say goodbye to Evo Morales, and more.

Former Bolivian President Evo Morales has been barred by the courts from serving again as president. (Creative Commons)

Researcher Sues DEA Over Marijuana Rescheduling Process. The DEA now faces a lawsuit from a researcher over its process in rescheduling marijuana. David Heldreth, CEO of Panacea Plant Sciences, a psychedelic research and development company, claims the agency violated the law in multiple ways as it moves toward a rescheduling decision.

He filed suit in the Western District of Washington, naming the Department of Justice, Attorney General Merrick Garland, the DEA, its Administrator Anne Milgram, and DEA Judge John J. Mulrooney II as respondents. He is seeking both injunctive and declaratory relief.

The agency received about 43,000 comments from stakeholders ranging from marijuana activists to doctors and scientists and law enforcement officials after it agreed with a Department of Health and Human Services recommendation that marijuana be moved from Schedule I to Schedule III. Heldreth is unhappy that he and his company were not selected in a final list of 25 participants in a hearing about rescheduling even though they had requested to participate.

He accuses the agency of using unconstitutional practices in its rulemaking process, sidelining small businesses (including his company), and ignoring Native American tribes. He argues that the DEA's failure to consult tribes would have impacts on tribal law enforcement and health services.

He is also challenging the constitutionality of DEA Administrative law judges, arguing that their being appointed by the DEA administrator violates Article II of the Constitution.

And he claims that he and his company were excluded from the hearing for punitive reasons because he is critical of the process.

He wants an injunction to halt proceedings, including the hearing, until the issues he cited are resolved. It is unclear when the judge will rule on the request.

Idaho Activists File Marijuana Legalization Ballot Measure For 2026. Activists organized as Kind Idaho have filed an initiative to legalize marijuana possession for the 2026 election. The ballot measure is known as Decriminalize Cannabis Now.

The measure would allow people 21 and over to possess up to an ounce of marijuana and grow up to 12 plants "for personal use and not for sale or resale," but not does not include language for a legal marijuana marketplace. Consuming marijuana would not be allowed in a "public or open setting."

The limited proposal comes after two more ambitious earlier efforts failed to get off the ground in 2020 an 2022.

"We are not creating a resale market. We're not making sale of any of this legal in the state," said Kind Idaho treasurer Joe. "We just want to be able to say, 'hey, your medicine, your body, do it your way.' As long as you're taking care of yourself -- and just yourself -- there's no reason for the state to get involved with what you're doing."

As well as no commercial marijuana provisions, this initiative does not include a state-supervised medical marijuana program. Kind Idaho thinks the streamlined measure could appeal to conservative voters in the conservative state.

"We'd like people to be able to go across the border [to Montana, Oregon, or Washington], get their medicine, get their self-care, and be able to come back without worrying about being arrested and without worrying about losing their vehicle to civil forfeiture," Evans said. "We want them to be able to make it home with their medicine, with their product, and be able to use it comfortably in their own spaces."

The secretary of state's office now has a short window to issue a ballot title and summary. Once it does so, the group will have until April 2026 to come up with approximately 70,000 valid voter signatures, including at least 6 percent of voters in half the state's 35 legislative districts.

International

Victoria Becomes First Australian State to Approve Drug Checking. Lawmakers in Melbourne have approved the Drugs, Poisons and Controlled Substances Amendment (Pill Testing) Bill 2024, making Victoria the first state in the country to okay drug-checking services at music festivals and other events. The state will do pilot drug-checking programs this summer.

"These changes don't make drugs legal, but by having pill testing services in place, we can help to keep more Victorians safe during busy summer festival seasons," Minister for Mental Health Ingrid Stitt said.

The bill allows both mobile and fixed-site drug checking, and the mobile service will show up at ten festivals and events during the 18-month pilot period. A permanent drug-checking site in Melbourne near the nightlife district will also begin operating by the middle of next year.

"The passing of this nation-leading legislation paves the way for our implementation trial to begin -- this will allow us to explore what model works best because there's plenty of evidence that pill testing saves lives," Stitt said.

The bill also increases access to the opioid overdose reversal drug naloxone by making it available through 20 vending machines across the state by the middle of next year.

Bolivia's Constitutional Court Bars Evo Morales from Running Again for Presidency. The constitutional court ruled in a decision reported last Friday that Evo Morales, the former leader of the coca growers who ruled the country from 2006 to 2019, cannot run again for the presidency.

Morales has been in an intense political fight with his former ally, President Luis Arce, to lead the Movement to Socialism (MAS) Party they founded together and be the party's nominee in the next presidential election.

Morales served three terms in office, even though a constitution written while he was in office limited presidents to two terms, but fled the country after claiming a contested victory in a bid for a fourth term in 2019. A court had allowed for Morales's third term because he was in office when the change was made.

Arce was elected president in 2020 after a rightist interregnum government was replaced.

The constitutional court's ruling last week made it clear that Morales could not serve another term as president, ending an era in Bolivian politics that saw the country embrace its coca and indigenous heritage for the first time. Now, with Arce, the government can continue that embrace, but without Morales.