DEA Barred the Only FDA Compliant Cannabis Drug Developer From Its Rescheduling Hearing-Then DEA’s Own Scientist Identified the Very Evidence MMJ Was Told It Lacked
DEA Administrator Terry Cole Told MMJ It Had No Factual Evidence to Offer. Weeks Later, DEA’s Own Scientific Witness, Dr. Akinfiresoye Testified About the Same Evidentiary Gap MMJ Sought to Address.
WASHINGTON, DC, July 25, 2026 (Newswire.com)
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MMJ International Holdings, Inc. (“MMJ”), together with its subsidiaries MMJ BioPharma Cultivation, Inc. and MMJ BioPharma Labs, Inc., today highlighted what it believes is one of the most striking contradictions to emerge from the federal marijuana rescheduling proceedings now before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
On June 17, 2026, the Drug Enforcement Administration denied MMJ’s request to participate in the administrative hearing on marijuana rescheduling. In a letter signed by DEA Administrator Terrance C. Cole, the agency concluded that MMJ’s proposed testimony addressed legal questions rather than factual matters and therefore would not provide “factual evidence or expert opinion regarding whether marijuana should be transferred to Schedule III.”
Only weeks later, during the DEA hearing itself, one of the agency’s own scientific witnesses testified under oath about a factual issue that MMJ contends should have been part of the record from the beginning.
MMJ is unique among the parties involved in the rescheduling dispute. Rather than pursuing cannabis through state commercial programs, the company has spent years developing cannabinoid medicines through the federal regulatory framework established by Congress. MMJ has obtained FDA Investigational New Drug authorizations for Huntington’s disease and multiple sclerosis programs, received orphan-drug designation, operates a DEA-registered Schedule I analytical laboratory, and has maintained a pending DEA bulk-manufacturing registration application while investing more than $10 million pursuing FDA approval.
According to MMJ, those experiences placed the company in a unique position to explain how the Attorney General’s April 2026 Rescheduling Order affects federally compliant pharmaceutical developers and whether the administrative record adequately supported a Schedule III determination. DEA nevertheless denied MMJ the opportunity to participate.
During the hearing that followed, however, a DEA scientist from the Scientific Review Division testified that state medical marijuana programs constitute a significant source of marijuana diversion within the United States. The witness further acknowledged that diversion had not been analyzed in the 2023 Department of Health and Human Services scientific review that formed the basis of the rescheduling recommendation, requiring DEA to address many gap issues in its own review.
For MMJ, that testimony underscored precisely why excluding scientifically informed participants like Dr. Akinfiresoye, who was subpoenaed for the hearing mattered.
“DEA told the one company that actually followed the federal drug approval process that it had nothing factual to contribute,” said Duane Boise, Chief Executive Officer of MMJ International Holdings. “Then the government’s own scientific witness testified about the very evidentiary gap we sought to address. That raises an obvious question: if those facts were important enough for DEA’s own scientists to discuss under oath, why wasn’t the only federally compliant cannabis drug developer allowed to present its evidence?”
MMJ argues that the exclusion also reinforces the broader procedural issues now before the D.C. Circuit.
The company’s appeal challenges the Attorney General’s April 2026 Rescheduling Order on multiple statutory and procedural grounds, including whether the Controlled Substances Act required formal rulemaking and whether the government lawfully relied upon treaty authority to bypass procedures that Congress expressly established. MMJ has argued that the D.C. Circuit’s decision in NORML v. DEA limits the government’s ability to invoke treaty authority as a substitute for the statutory process required by the Controlled Substances Act.
According to MMJ, excluding affected parties from the only administrative hearing conducted on the issue compounds-not cures-the procedural concerns already presented to the Court.
“This appeal is ultimately about the rule of law,” Boise added. “Congress established a process for changing the legal status of controlled substances. That process includes scientific review, administrative procedures, and an opportunity for affected parties to be heard. MMJ asked to participate because we have spent years complying with the very federal system Congress created. We believe the Court should decide whether those statutory protections were honored.”
MMJ’s motion seeking a stay of the Attorney General’s Rescheduling Order is fully briefed before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
About MMJ International Holdings
MMJ International Holdings, Inc., through its subsidiaries MMJ BioPharma Cultivation, Inc. and MMJ BioPharma Labs, Inc., is a pharmaceutical company developing FDA-regulated cannabinoid therapeutics for Huntington’s disease and multiple sclerosis. The company has pursued cannabinoid drug development through the FDA botanical drug pathway since 2018 and maintains a DEA Schedule I analytical laboratory registration while advancing investigational cannabinoid medicines through the federal regulatory process.
CONTACT:
Madison Hisey
MHisey@mmjih.com
203-231-8583
Personal notes were taken by an attendee at the ALJ hearing but Terry Coles letter is attacked verbatim.
SOURCE: MMJ International Holdings
Source: MMJ International Holdings
