The US Cannabis Roundtable (USCR), one of the most influential advocacy groups in the country, is ‘still optimistic about the President acting on cannabis reform’.
Speaking to Green Market Report, David Culver, the USCR’s Senior Vice President of Public Affairs, said that he believes ongoing speculation over the death of the rescheduling process, which started under the Biden administration, is premature.
Despite growing evidence that the DEA has moved to undermine the process, and plenty of investigation into the attitudes towards cannabis of the new administration, Culver believes the ultimate decision will lie with the President, and that the industry ‘is going to have to wait our turn’.
With the process currently stuck in limbo pending the conclusion of an interlocutory appeal into the DEA’s neutrality, the ‘ball remains in the DEA’s court’ for now.
As Trump places loyalty above all else in his administration, and that anyone that strays from the President’s line on key issues is often set aside immediately, Culver suggested that the neutrality of key officials regarding cannabis was little to worry about.
“There are an equal number of key administration officials that are very, very procannabis reform,” Culver said.
He added that he remained confident the President ‘has evolved on this issue considerably since he was in office last time around’, but that cannabis reform simply was not a priority for the first months of the administration.
“I think that (the DEA are) going to need to get direction from the President in order for rescheduling to occur… The big question is when.”
It comes just weeks after controversial former congressman and Trump loyalist Matt Gaetz suggested in an op-ed that cannabis rescheduling could be ‘on the horizon’.
Meanwhile, last week the DEA reported that no progress in the rescheduling case had been made since its suspension.
In a joint status update submitted on April 10 to Administrative Law Judge John J. Mulrooney, DEA attorneys stated that Acting Administrator Derek Maltz has yet to set a briefing schedule that would allow parties to formally present arguments on whether the DEA should be allowed to continue acting as the proponent of the rule change.
The Office of National Drug Control Policy’s recently released list of 2025 policy priorities made no mention of cannabis rescheduling or reform, further fueling concerns that the administration is stepping back from the issue.
