Final briefs are in on marijuana rescheduling, and the fight comes down to one GAO report

The DEA and the groups opposing rescheduling filed what are expected to be their last briefs in the agency's hearing on moving marijuana to Schedule III. The administrative law judge will now use the record to write a recommendation for the DEA administrator. No date has been given for it.

The argument centers on a Government Accountability Office report that found gaps in how federal drug-scheduling reviews are done. The DEA says the judge should give it no weight, and adds that if its criticisms undercut the current review they would equally undercut the 2016 review that kept marijuana in Schedule I, since both used the same internal guidelines.

Opponents, a joint filing from a drug-screening trade group, a victims' advocacy group and an individual, say the report shows the process was flawed and that the government therefore cannot carry its burden. They also object to the move from a five-part test for accepted medical use to a two-part one without documented justification.

Context matters here: state-licensed medical marijuana already moved to Schedule III in April, and the litigation over that change is consolidated at the D.C. Circuit, which has declined to pause it. This hearing is about the broader adult-use question. For operators, the safest planning assumption is that the medical side is settled in practice while the rest stays in limbo until the judge and the administrator act.