Trump Justice Department withdraws Biden-era cannabis research, hemp testing

The Trump Department of Justice is moving to cancel Biden-era laws to expand cannabis research and hemp analytic testing.

In a notice dated Sept. 8 published in the Federal Register on Thursday, Attorney General Pam Bondi withdrew a total of 54 “Notices of Proposed Rulemaking” and “previously announced regulatory actions.”

Among these are an historic bipartisan marijuana and CBD research bill and a measure that would have allowed Farm Bill-compliant hemp to be tested at labs without Drug Enforcement Administration certification.

The notice scheduled for publication in the Federal Register on Thursday, the DOJ said the withdrawal of the proposed rules is “part of the Federal Government’s deregulatory initiative because of ongoing assessments of agency needs, priorities and objectives.”

The hemp testing rule shares the same identifier number as hearings related to a cannabis rescheduling proposal that President Donald Trump indicated he would soon address, Marijuana Moment noted.

However, those hearings have been on indefinite hiatus since the eve of President Donald Trump’s second inauguration in January.

And an anonymous White House official told Marijuana Moment that Bondi’s actions do not withdraw the May 2024 proposal to relax cannabis’ status under federal law.

The new action “should not be interpreted as a withdrawal of the rescheduling proposal but rather a withdrawal of the Analytical Labs and Hemp [notice of proposed rulemaking] as listed,” the official said, according to Marijuana Moment.

Trump last month pledged to move on rescheduling marijuana within weeks.

But uncertainty remains about how the withdrawal of the cannabis-related measures will affect the industry and related policies.

For example, it’s uncertain how the department could step back from implementing the bipartisan Medical Marijuana and Cannabidiol Research Expansion Act, which Congress passed and former President Joe Biden signed into law in 2022.

The rule’s description indicates that, under the law, the Drug Enforcement Administration planned to update the regulations to streamline the application process for researchers wishing to study the drug.

Although some lawmakers have voiced frustration over the implementation of the law, it’s unclear why the DEA would abandon its proposal to streamline the cannabis research process.

Another source of confusion is the DOJ’s proposed withdrawal of the Analytical Labs and Hemp rule.

That would “waive registration requirements for analytical labs that perform chemical analysis solely on hemp samples produced pursuant to an approed USDA Hemp Production plan,” according to the abstract.

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