DEA Judge Overseeing Cannabis Rescheduling Hearing Set to Retire

The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) judge who was tasked with overseeing a Biden administration proposal to reschedule cannabis is set to retire on Aug. 1.

John J. Mulrooney II, the agency’s chief administrative law judge, notified the hearing’s designated participants on July 23 that he will no longer have jurisdiction over the case come the end of next week.

“My retirement will leave the DEA with no Administrative Law Judge to hear this matter or any of the Agency’s other pending administrative enforcement cases,” Mulrooney wrote. “The Controlled Substances Act requires that DEA administrative enforcement hearing proceedings must be conducted in accordance with the Administrative Procedure Act and presided over by an Administrative Law Judge.”

The current hearing process, to debate the merits of a proposal to reclassify cannabis from a Schedule I to a Schedule III drug under the Controlled Substances Act (CSA), has been stayed since Jan. 13, 2025, when Mulrooney granted an interlocutory appeal amid claims from pro-rescheduling parties that the DEA conducted improper communications with anti-rescheduling participants.

Mulrooney has retained limited jurisdiction over the case during the past six months to provide rulings on non-dispositive, procedural motions, such as certain participants dropping out of the process, and others seeking alternative counsel.

However, during the past six months, the hearing process has remained delayed in the absence of the DEA administrator fixing a briefing schedule to allow for the designated participants to weigh in on the matter, as Mooney ordered.

Derek S. Maltz was the DEA’s acting administrator from Jan. 21 until early May, when he stepped down, and Robert Murphy was the acting administrator until July 21, when the Senate confirmed President Donald Trump’s nominee, Terrance Cole, to head the agency.

That said, the fate of the hearing process is now in Cole’s hands.

“Until there is a change in this circumstance, all matters filed in this case will be forwarded to the DEA Administrator, for whatever action, if any, he deems appropriate,” Mulrooney wrote in his retirement announcement July 23. “All previously-issued procedural orders remain in full force and effect unless otherwise modified by a successor Administrative Law Judge, the DEA Administrator, or the Attorney General.”

This is a developing story and will be updated shortly.