Biden’s Failed Actions on Cannabis Issues ‘Borders on Political Malpractice,’ Lawmaker Says

Concerned with the executive branch’s “ineffective implementation” of a cannabis bill signed more than 15 months ago, U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., laid into a White House cabinet member during a committee hearing March 21.  

On the receiving end of the criticism was U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier Beccera, whose department is overdue to provide Congress a report on federal barriers to cannabis research, as directed by the bipartisan Medical Marijuana and Cannabidiol Research Expansion Act that President Joe Biden signed into law in December 2022.

Blumenauer, a co-chair chair of the Congressional Cannabis Caucus who sponsored the legislation, sent a letter earlier this month to Beccera demanding that HHS “remedy” the implementation after the department missed a December 2023 deadline to provide the report.

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But during the House Ways and Means Committee meeting Thursday, Blumenauer had Becerra directly in front of him during an in-person hearing on the policy proposals outlined in Biden’s fiscal year 2025 budget request for the HHS.

“One area that I could not be more disappointed is what this administration has failed to do dealing with issues relating to cannabis,” Blumenauer said. “The president has made some minor adjustments. There’ve been a few people who have been pardoned. He commissioned an effort to reschedule cannabis. But Vice President [Kamala] Harris just this week was extraordinarily frustrated with the policies of her own administration, and she’s right. I think it borders on political malpractice and beyond.”

Blumenauer went on to talk about his Medical Marijuana and Cannabidiol Research Act, a law that aims to encourage and facilitate research on cannabis and its potential health benefits by streamlining the application process for studies and removing U.S. Food and Drug Administration barriers for researchers that often slow the process.

The act was the first piece of standalone federal cannabis reform signed into law since the Controlled Substances Act of 1971 notoriously designated the plant as a Schedule I drug, according to Blumenauer’s office.

“This is an area that just breaks my heart,” he said in committee. “I am frustrated that the legislation we passed in 2022, which should have been fully implemented months ago, we’re still waiting. Mr. Secretary, this is an area that is profoundly affecting millions of people in the United States. We are denying opportunities for research that almost everybody agrees could be transformative, and we’re not in the forefront of this research. … I am hopeful that we can see some action following through on the legislation I passed, but more importantly on the things that the American people want.”

Blumenauer said medical cannabis treatments being delayed and research being denied is “politically damaging” to the Biden administration and asked Becerra to work with Congress to “break the logjam” on cannabis reform.

Becerra said he’d take back “much of” Blumenauer’s message to the White House, but the Health Secretary went on to comment on his department’s rescheduling recommendation rather than the cannabis research law Blumenauer was scolding him about.

“I do want to make sure I recognize that the work that HHS has done was pretty far reaching, and quite some time ago, we were asked by the president back in 2022 to take a close look at cannabis,” Beccera said. “We delivered. We finished our work last year, and we submitted, as we were required by law, our findings based on the science. … [The] president asked us to do something; we did it.”

Ahead of the committee hearing, Blumenauer also submitted question for the record (below) regarding HHS officials having “asked the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel to weigh in on legal issues related to moving [marijuana] to a less-restrictive status,” as reported by the Wall Street Journal on March 9.

Regarding the news report, Blumenauer asked three questions for the record:

1. How does this outreach conform or differ from standard practice in scheduling reviews under the Controlled Substances Act?
2. What concerns prompted HHS’ communication with the Office of Legal Counsel regarding the scheduling of marijuana?
3. What legal authority can HHS leverage to uphold its recommendation to reschedule marijuana to Schedule III in the event that DEA proposes scheduling marijuana higher than Schedule III?
   

Blumenauer also wrote in the inquiry that cannabis was scheduled “based on stigma, not science,” and that it was time to “remedy this injustice.”

The 75-year-old, who has served his current U.S. House district since 1996, and who has spent his entire political career championing cannabis policy reform, won’t seek reelection this fall.

“We’ve been dancing around this for as long as I’ve been in Congress,” he said during the Ways and Means Committee hearing. “I’ve been talking to you throughout your tenure. I think it’s time for the administration to actually follow through on some good intentions.”