A DEA administrative law judge is pondering a request to remove the agency as a proponent in rescheduling marijuana, a Nepalese MP has filed a bill to legalize marijuana in a country once famed for its hash, and more. 

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Marijuana Policy

DEA Judge Gives Agency a Week to Address Allegations It Improperly Talked with Marijuana Reform Opponents. DEA Administrative Law Judge John Mulrooney, who is overseeing marijuana rescheduling, has given the agency less than a week to address charges that it illegally communicated with the prohibitionist group Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM) during the rescheduling review process. 

The judge's move comes in response to a request from attorneys from two marijuana organizations, Hemp for Victory and Village Farms, to remove the DEA as the "proponent" for rescheduling. The two groups want the judge to "unilaterally remove the DEA, its counsels, and its Administrator" from the rescheduling process and emplace either the Justice Department or Hemp for Victory as "proponent."

The two groups charge that the DEA impermissibly "engaged in ex parte communications regarding the merits of the proposed rescheduling" by meeting with SAM.

Judge Mulrooney's order said removing an agency head from rulemaking for a matter that agency oversees would probably be beyond his jurisdiction, but added that: "That said, this tribunal does retain sufficient authority and independence to tender recommendations to the Administrator, no matter what discomfiture those recommendations may inflict upon the Agency or its Leadership."

The order also suggested he was uncomfortable with the idea of allowing one of the plaintiffs to take over the DEA's role as "proponent," noting that such a proposal would "arguably be vulnerable to a characterization of being unserious."

But, Mulrooney's order continued, "on the other side of the coin, the allegations regarding alleged improper ex parte communications are serious, and the concomitant obligations to memorialize and report such communications set forth in the APA [administrative Procedures Act] and the regulations are by no means couched in permissive language."

The lawsuit from the marijuana advocates charges that SAM head Kevin Sabet engaged in "unlawful" communication with the agency and cites screenshots of social media posts where Sabet claimed knowledge gleaned from private conversations with the DEA officials about rescheduling. 

The government has until November 25 to respond to the allegations if it cares to. 

Texas Attorney General Sues Dallas over Decriminalization Vote. State Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) has filed yet another lawsuit against localities that vote in favor of marijuana law reforms that go beyond state law, this time suing the city of Dallas, where voters approved a decriminalization ordinance on Election Day. He has previously sued the cities of San Marcos, Austin, Killeen, Elgin, and Denton over similar measures with mixed results. 

Dallas voters approved Proposition R, the "Dallas Freedom Act" by a margin of two-to-one. It bars city police from arresting or citing anyone for possession of four ounces or less of marijuana. It also bars police from using the odor of marijuana as a basis for searches unless the case is a violent felony or high priority drug investigation. 

It was just the latest of similar moves by Ground Game Texas, which has sponsored ordinances in all those cities Paxton sued. 

Paxton argues that the Texas Local Government Code blocks localities from adopting "a policy under which the entity will not fully enforce laws relating to drugs." He also argues that the state constitution makes it unlawful for localities to adopt ordinances inconsistent with state law. 

"Cities cannot pick and choose which state laws they follow," Paxton said Thursday. Cities that adopt such ordinances are engaging in "a backdoor attempt to violate the Texas Constitution, and any city that tries to constrain police in this fashion will be met swiftly with a lawsuit by my office."

So far, judges in San Marcos and Austin have dismissed Paxton's lawsuit, while one against Elgin was settled by a consent decree. Denton never implemented its ordinance after the city manager said it conflicted with state law, and the case against Killeen is still pending. 

"Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has decided once again to waste taxpayer money to litigate another local marijuana decriminalization measure," according to a statement from the Texas Cannabis Collective posted on social media.

Medical Marijuana

FDA OKs PTSD Marijuana Study in Veterans. The Food and Drug Administration last week gave authorization for a clinical study to see whether marijuana can be useful in treating Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) in veterans. Sponsored by the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS), the study had been blocked by the FDA since 2021.

The FDA objected on numerous grounds, including that letting people smoke high-potency marijuana was dangerous to their health and that letting subjects "self-titrate" would let subjects smoke as much weed as they wanted to relieve their symptoms.

But last Wednesday, MAPS announced that the FDA had given a green light for the trial and that it no longer objected either to smoking or to letting subjects choose how much they smoked. 

"After three years of negotiations with the FDA, this decision opens the door to future research into cannabis as a medical treatment, offering hope to millions," MAPS said in a statement. 

The FDA also will allow for the use of marijuana as potent as commercially available weed, but it will insist that subjects have "prior experience" inhaling marijuana. 

The study will help fill a gap in research on the benefits of marijuana for PTSD, said MAPS cannabis studies head Allison Coker. 

"People are using it for medical use. States are clearing it for medical use, but the FDA has not weighed in on it. We don’t have as many studies and data as we might want, especially we don’t have studies [reflecting] the way that people are using it in the states," Coker said. 

Asset Forfeiture

Justice Department Suspends DEA Asset Forfeiture Program Targeting Airline Passengers. The Justice Department has suspended a controversial DEA asset forfeiture program that targeted unsuspecting airline passengers and subjected them to potentially illegal searches and seizures of cash. The move comes after Inspector General Michael Horowitz issued a report Thursday that raised deep concerns about the program and questioned whether some searches were legal. 

"The DEA was not complying with its own policy on consensual encounters conducted at mass transportation facilities, resulting in personnel creating potentially significant operational and legal risks," Horowitz wrote in a memo to Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco and Anne Milgram, the DEA administrator.

Horowitz pointed to a number of troubling revelations, including using airline employees as confidential sources to point out travelers who bought tickets on short notice, then approaching and browbeating the passengers into consenting to searches, seizing their money, and rewarding the airline employee with a cut of the proceeds. 

The libertarian-leaning Institute for Justice had filed a class action lawsuit against the DEA and the Transportation Security Administration in 2020 over the program, saying they were illegally taking cash from passengers without probable cause. While that case is still pending, an attorney for the institute said Thursday's action 

"confirms many of the allegations" in the lawsuit.

International

Nepal Bill Would Legalize Marijuana. A member of parliament (MP) has filed a bill in the lower house seeking to legalize marijuana in the Himalayan nation. MP Sher Bahadur Tamang filed the private member's bill on Monday. 

Tamang, a former law minister, said his bill, titled "Marijuana Cultivation Regulation and Management in Nepal," would enhance the country's economy and allow for medical uses. 

"If the ban on marijuana production and sale is lifted, new job opportunities will be created at home itself thereby stopping the trend of Nepali youths going abroad in search of job opportunities in coming days," the bill says.

Nepal was once a key stop on the hippy trail in the 1960s when young Westerners traversed exotic locations in Eurasia seeking psychoactive substances, but under pressure from Western governments, the country banned marijuana in 1973.