How DEA disfavored pro-rescheduling parties attorney Shane Pennington, the witnesses’ counsel and a partner at Porter Wright’s Washington, D.C., office who specializes in administrative law, attempts to show in greater detail how the agency “disfavored pro-rescheduling parties, including DEA researchers, doctors, scientists, and the State of Colorado, which has competently regulated a medical marijuana program for over a decade.”
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis requested in a Sept. 30 letter to DEA Administrator Anne Milgram that the state be allowed to present “relevant, unique, and non-duplicative” data that shows “marijuana having medical utility and abuse potential far below opioids.”
In his letter – a copy was attached to Monday’s filing – Polis expressed a fear that any federal rescheduling decision made without considering Colorado’s position “will introduce significant risks” to state-regulated marijuana frameworks, including the ability to regulate sales as well as collect tax revenue.
But, according to Monday’s filing, Milgram “barred Colorado from presenting that data” by ignoring Polis’ letter and declining to extend the state an invitation.
Instead, the DEA mentioned Colorado 27 times in its Jan. 2 filing, part of an effort “to cast doubt on the success of the decade-old state-regulated program,” according to Monday’s claims.
“Yet DEA makes no attempt to engage with the positive evidence from Colorado and summarily rejected Colorado’s request to participate in this hearing,” the filing continued.
“And now, secure in the knowledge that the Administrator’s secret selection process has guaranteed that Colorado will not be able to respond or defend itself, DEA reveals its plan to smear the state’s successful regulatory program in these historic and very public proceedings.”
The DEA also allowed the state of Nebraska, which is attempting to thwart a medical marijuana ballot initiative approved by its voters in November, and the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation to participate in the proceedings.
Both states are opposed to rescheduling, according to their filings.
https://mjbizdaily.com/biased-dea-kept-colorado-out-of-marijuana-rescheduling-hearings-filing-says/