The US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and parties opposed to reclassifying cannabis filed what are expected to be their final briefs on Thursday 5 November 2026, as an agency judge prepares a recommendation on whether marijuana should move from Schedule I to Schedule III of the Controlled Substances Act. The filings, as first reported by Marijuana Moment, centre on a recent report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO), the US federal watchdog.

The DEA argues the report should carry “no weight” in the judge’s thinking. Opponents say it shows the scientific review behind the proposal was fatally flawed.

What the watchdog report found

The GAO report found, among other things, that the DEA “does not have any policies or procedures regarding how its staff are to conduct evaluations or schedule substances”. It said the same of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which conducts the medical and scientific assessments that inform scheduling recommendations.

Last month DEA Chief Administrative Law Judge Derek Julius refused a request from opponents to reopen the hearing for more testimony and document discovery about the report. He did allow the report into the record and invited “narrowly tailored” briefs on how much weight it deserves.

The two sides’ arguments

In its reply, the DEA said opponents were using the process to “reargue matters that were debated at the hearing” and that the report provides no new information on issues known beforehand. It also argued that if missing written procedures undermine the current recommendation, they would equally call into question a 2016 review that left cannabis in Schedule I, a review opponents have described as properly performed. The agency said the internal guidelines appeared consistent between 2016 and 2023.

A joint brief from the National Drug & Alcohol Screening Association, DUID Victim Voices and Kenneth Finn said the report “provides evidence that the Government’s process was flawed”. They argued the government could not meet its burden of proof without established procedures. They also criticised a new two-part test for assessing accepted medical use, which replaced a five-part test. In 2024 the Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel called the older test “impermissibly narrow”. The opponents acknowledged that nothing indicates different internal guidelines were used in earlier rescheduling attempts.

In its wider closing arguments, the DEA said cannabis has a currently accepted medical use in the US and accepted safety under medical supervision. It cited more than 30,000 practitioners treating over six million patients in 43 US jurisdictions. It asked the judge to “expeditiously recommend” the move to Schedule III.

Background and next steps

In April, Attorney General Todd Blanche issued an order immediately moving state-licensed medical cannabis and FDA-approved cannabis products to Schedule III. A separate order led to the DEA hearing, held in June and July, to consider a broader move. The DEA invited only opponents of reform to take part as designated participants, and reform campaigners complained that they were shut out and that the hearing was not livestreamed.

The judge’s recommendation will go to the DEA administrator. Several lawsuits challenging the process, brought by state attorneys general, opponents of legalisation and a biopharmaceutical company, have been consolidated before the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, which recently declined to block the process while the litigation continues. A congressional committee has also voted for a provision to stop further steps, though lawmakers told Marijuana Moment they did not expect it to become law.

The outcome matters to UK readers as a signal of international drug policy. In the UK, cannabis remains a Class B drug under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971, and specialist doctors have been able to prescribe cannabis-based medicines since 1 November 2018.