DEA to Present Testimony on Medical Marijuana Benefits in Rescheduling Hearing as Opponents Push Harms Narrative
Key Insights
DEA's witness list for the June 29 rescheduling hearing includes Dr. Corey Burchman, who will testify that medical marijuana provides a medical benefit to pain patients based on his clinical experience.
FDA official Dominic Chiapperino will describe the eight-factor analysis supporting the recommendation to move cannabis from Schedule I to Schedule III of the Controlled Substances Act.
Prohibitionist group SAM seeks to subpoena DEA pharmacologist Luli Akinfiresoye, who previously submitted a report linking cannabis to psychosis (search), depression (search), and cognitive impairment.
The Drug Enforcement Administration (search) has disclosed in a new filing that its witness list for the upcoming marijuana rescheduling hearing includes a physician who will testify about the medical benefits of cannabis for pain patients, signaling that the government intends to highlight therapeutic applications as it defends the proposal to move marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule III of the Controlled Substances Act.
The hearing, set to begin June 29 and conclude no later than July 15 in Arlington, Virginia, will feature testimony from Corey Burchman, a medical doctor from New Hampshire with more than 30 years of clinical experience.
"Dr. Burchman will testify that he provided direct patient care for pain patients as an anesthesiologist and pain management physician following his residency and fellowship training in 1986 until 2019," the DEA filing states. "He will testify that he was practicing at the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Hanover, NH when the medical center began prioritizing medical marijuana as a treatment modality for pain patients and he worked to transition many patients from treatment with opioids to treatment with marijuana."
The filing further notes that "Dr. Burchman will further testify that in his medical opinion, medical marijuana provides a medical benefit to pain patients." He will also address patient safety measures utilized in the industry, including caps on monthly amounts of medicinal marijuana allowed per patient, product QR codes, certificates of analysis, and testing by certified labs, drawing on his experience with New Hampshire's medical cannabis program.
FDA Official to Detail Eight-Factor Analysis
The government's second witness is Dominic Chiapperino, director of the controlled substance staff with FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. He will describe the eight-factor analysis used to assess marijuana's currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States.
According to the filing, Chiapperino will testify that the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health "found that licensed health care practitioners had widespread current experience with use of medical marijuana in jurisdictions where such medical use is recognized by entities that regulate the practice of medicine."
"Dr. Chiapperino will testify to FDA's assessment of the findings necessary to support placement in Schedule III, namely that marijuana has a potential for abuse less than the drugs or other substances in Schedules I and II, that marijuana has a CAMU for at least one therapeutic condition, and that abuse of marijuana may lead to moderate or low physical dependence or high psychological dependence," the filing states.
A letter from FDA attached to the filing specifies that Chiapperino is authorized to testify to "the scientific and medical determinations that form the basis of the 8FA," the "scientific and medical determinations underlying the evaluation performed in FDA's assessment of CAMU," and "FDA's recommendation to place marijuana in Schedule III." He is not authorized to testify on matters outside these three topics.
Opponents Seek Testimony on Cannabis Harms
Meanwhile, prohibitionist group Smart Approaches to Marijuana (search), one of seven parties invited to participate in the hearing, is seeking to call DEA pharmacologist Luli Akinfiresoye as its own witness. The agency has resisted this request.
"The Government does not intend to identify Dr. Akinfiresoye as witness for our case in chief," DEA attorney James J. Schwartz wrote in an email to SAM, prompting the group to seek a subpoena.
Akinfiresoye was previously an official DEA witness for an earlier, subsequently cancelled hearing on marijuana rescheduling during the Biden administration. At that time, she submitted a report linking cannabis consumption to psychosis (search), depression (search), and impaired cognitive functioning. The report states that "cannabis impairs a wide range of psychomotor skills, including motor coordination, divided attention, and complex task performance" and that "chronic use of cannabis can impair cognitive functioning, affecting the organization and integration of complex information, as well as impair attention and memory processes."
DEA has informed SAM that if it wishes to call the pharmacologist, it must submit a request under Touhy regulations, and that the information sought may be shielded under the Privacy Act. Amber Porter, section chief in DEA's Office of Chief Counsel, wrote that "one or more privileges, such as the law enforcement privilege, may bar release of the information you seek."
Hearing Transparency and Participation Concerns
DEA Chief Administrative Law Judge Derek Julius issued a preliminary order last week recognizing that "national public interest in this issue predicates towards a policy of transparency" while simultaneously determining that "the hearing will not be televised, livestreamed, or broadcasted in any way."
Marijuana Moment counsel Joseph A. Bondy challenged this decision in a letter to the judge, noting that DEA permitted livestreaming of the earlier cancelled hearing. "In a proceeding of this public significance, and in light of DEA's prior livestreaming directive, a public hearing is not meaningfully public if access depends on the happenstance of limited physical attendance," Bondy wrote. "Delayed access to transcripts is no substitute for contemporaneous observation."
No reform supporters who expressed intent to participate were invited to the hearing. The proceedings are being challenged by several lawsuits consolidated by a federal appeals court, filed by state attorneys general, marijuana legalization opponents, and a cannabis-focused biopharmaceutical corporation.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche in April issued an order immediately reclassifying state-licensed medical cannabis and FDA-approved marijuana products from Schedule I to Schedule III. The upcoming hearing will consider more comprehensively moving marijuana to Schedule III under a separate order.