Meet the U.S. Cannabis Council and USCC Spokesperson Josh Glasstetter

With the official announcements from the Biden Administration that cannabis will finally be rescheduled in the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) many people have been wondering – just how long is this going to take? The U.S. Cannabis Council recently held a live webinar to discuss exactly that.

After all, it’s not like the government is often known for moving quickly on matters like this, otherwise it wouldn’t have taken this long for it to finally happen. When cannabis was originally listed as schedule I in the CSA it was meant to be researched and rescheduled, but that step just never happened back then.

USCC Webinar Discussed Our Timeline to Rescheduling Cannabis

Better late than never, the U.S. government is finally on the path to rescheduling cannabis and removing barriers to research and archaic penalties for possession of a plant. To get an idea of how long this will take, I attended a webinar hosted by the U.S. Cannabis Council (USCC) – a dedicated group of businesses, individuals, and organizations.

This particular webinar was hosted by USCC spokesperson Josh Glasstetter where he was joined by leading cannabis attorneys Jesse Alderman, Kelly Fair, and Shawn Hauser. Together they discussed many of the moving parts in making rescheduling happen, as well as anticipate that we could see the official change happen before the end of the year.

The steps required in the beginning will dictate the timeline going forward, as we are starting with a 60 day comment period that is already open to the public. During this time, anyone can request a hearing – but the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) can choose whether to hold hearings at their discretion.

In the webinar it was mentioned that other less notable hallucinogenic substances have been rescheduled in as little as six months, so there is a good chance that with the publicity surrounding cannabis it will be moved along quickly. It’s also likely we could see this happen before the end of the year, though perhaps not in time to happen before the upcoming presidential election in November.

Interview with USCC Spokesperson Josh Glasstetter

After the webinar, I reached out to a few of the members of the USCC and was lucky enough to get in touch on LinkedIn for an interview!

This interview was conducted via email with the U.S. Cannabis Council spokesperson, Josh Glasstetter. A professional in policy and communications, Josh has been working with the USCC since 2021 and has played an important part in getting their message out to the world – and I’d like to thank him here for the time he took out of his busy schedule to provide us with answers to a few burning questions.

It was stated during the webinar that any interested party can comment or request a hearing during the period of public comment. How would someone go about making their voice heard by the DEA?

The draft rule is posted at Regulations.gov, and any interested party can leave a comment. Nearly 15,000 comments have been submitted so far. Some are detailed and extensively sourced. Others are a single paragraph.

What type of comment or request could or is more likely to prompt a hearing in front of a judge? What requests will likely be denied?

During the comment period, interested parties can request an administrative law hearing on the draft rule. The DEA has sole discretion on whether or not to grant a hearing. Any hearing would be conducted by an administrative law judge who would hear arguments, consider evidence, and prepare findings on legal questions related to the rule.

Are hearings only held on things challenging the move to schedule III or are there going to be hearings held for and against the change?

The DEA Administrator has full discretion to accept or reject findings by the administrative law judge.

How does rescheduling cannabis affect those currently convicted or incarcerated for something that would have a different penalty under the revised law? Would something need to be done separately post-rescheduling cannabis to accomplish this?

When cannabis is moved to Schedule III, it will still be federally illegal. There will be no immediate impact on those who have been charged with cannabis-related crimes. That is why we will continue to push for cannabis to be fully descheduled and for cannabis charges to be expunged.

The DEA and Congress are both talking about imposing serious restrictions on legal hemp via amendments to the Federal Farm Bill… Will rescheduling cannabis impact the availability of hemp-derived cannabis products?

Cannabis rescheduling will have no direct impact on hemp-derived products