On September 29, 2026, the federal government’s effort to move marijuana to a less restrictive drug schedule stopped mid-process. Derek C. Julius, the DEA’s chief administrative law judge, stayed the proceedings. The reason was a report from the Government Accountability Office, and a handful of people who wanted it in the record.
Three interested parties made the request: DUID Victim Voices, physician Kenneth Finn and a group IBTimes UK named as the National Drug and Alcohol Screening Association. They asked that the report be added to the hearing record, that they be allowed extra briefing on it, and that the judge hold back his recommendation until those arguments had been heard.
What the GAO found
The report looked at how federal agencies handle drug scheduling. It found that the DEA lacked comprehensive policies setting out roles, responsibilities and procedures for the work. The Food and Drug Administration, it said, had no written procedures for staff evaluations and scheduling recommendations. It recommended that both agencies write clearer ones.
It stopped short of more. IBTimes UK stressed that the findings do not show the marijuana process was unlawful or that its scientific assessments were flawed. The report dealt with documentation and process, not with whether the evidence for reclassification holds up.
Two stays, one deadline
Judge Julius gave the DEA until October 13 to respond. The agency filed on October 9, according to The Motley Fool. It objected to the request for briefing but deferred to the judge. He answered with a second stay, giving the opponents time to reply to the DEA.
So the proceeding sits where it sat. The immediate question is narrow: does the GAO report belong in the record, and may the parties argue about it? Only after that can the case move toward a final recommendation.
What the pause does not do
Nothing changes for marijuana’s legal status in the meantime. Schedule I is the most restrictive category under the Controlled Substances Act, reserved for substances considered to have a high potential for abuse and no currently accepted medical use under federal law. Schedule III covers drugs with accepted medical uses and lower potential for dependence. Moving marijuana there would not legalize recreational use nationwide, and other federal restrictions could remain.
Narrower changes have already touched some FDA-approved marijuana-based medicines and state-regulated medical programs, IBTimes UK noted, but that is separate from the broader proposal now stalled.
The delay has a cost for people with money on the line. President Donald Trump signed Executive Order 14370 last December to speed rescheduling, and cannabis stocks jumped on the news. Canopy Growth went from $1.15 to nearly $2 a share, The Motley Fool recalled. The shares have since given those gains back and more.
Sources
- Donald Trump's Plan to Reclassify Marijuana Is Paused as the DEA Reviews a New Government Report | IBTimes UK
- Trump's Marijuana Order Is Stuck at the DEA. Here's What That Means for Canopy Growth. | The Motley Fool
