Public Comment — July 24, 2026

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July 24, 2026: MCB Meet­ing
March 27, 2026: MCB Min­utes
Carl Olsen: Mr. Olsen expressed sup­port for the Board’s pre­vi­ous rec­om­men­da­tions regard­ing a fed­er­al exemp­tion under 21 U.S.C. § 822(d) and encour­aged con­tin­ued con­sid­er­a­tion of those rec­om­men­da­tions.  He also not­ed his efforts to share the Board’s rec­om­men­da­tions with state and fed­er­al pol­i­cy­mak­ers.

After the last board meet­ing, the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment moved state “med­ical mar­i­jua­na” to Sched­ule 3 con­sis­tent with inter­na­tion­al treaty pro­vi­sions pur­suant to 21 U.S.C. § 811(d).[1][2]  Non-med­ical mar­i­jua­na remains in Sched­ule 1 while the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment con­tin­ues mov­ing it to Sched­ule 3 pur­suant to 21 U.S.C. § 811(a).

This deci­sion to bypass for­mal rule­mak­ing pro­ce­dures is cur­rent­ly being chal­lenged in the U.S. Court of Appeals.[3]  Med­Pharm Iowa, LLC, d/b/a Bud & Mary’s has moved to inter­vene.[4][5]

Not one state has autho­rized “med­ical mar­i­jua­na” by resched­ul­ing it.  In Iowa, for exam­ple, there is no men­tion of Chap­ter 124E in the sched­ules of Chap­ter 124.  There is a short exemp­tion for “med­ical mar­i­jua­na” in the enforce­ment sec­tion, Iowa Code § 124.401(5)©.

Con­sid­er­ing the new fed­er­al rules were adopt­ed with­out for­mal rule­mak­ing and haven’t been thor­ough­ly vet­ted yet, I would ask the board to con­tin­ue rec­om­mend­ing a legal task force to explore fed­er­al exemp­tion under 21 U.S.C. § 822(d), which is also con­sis­tent with inter­na­tion­al treaty pro­vi­sions.[6][7]

Even if this new fed­er­al rule is invalid, all of mar­i­jua­na could still end up in sched­ule 3 before the midterm elec­tions.  The board can revis­it this ques­tion again in Novem­ber.  For now, please keep rec­om­mend­ing a legal task force to work on fed­er­al exemp­tion.

Thank you!

Carl Olsen
carl@carl-olsen.com
https://carl-olsen.com

[1]  New def­i­n­i­tion of “pre­scrip­tion”, 21 C.F.R. § 1301.13(k)(5), 91 FR 22721, Apr. 28, 2026.
[2]  New Sched­ule 3 for “state med­ical mar­i­jua­na”, 21 C.F.R. § 1308.13(g), 91 FR 22722, Apr. 28, 2026.
[3]  Unit­ed States Court of Appeals for the Dis­trict of Colum­bia Cir­cuit, SAM, Inc. v. Depart­ment of Jus­tice, 26–1106, 26–1130, 26–1136
[4]  Med­Pharm Iowa, LLC, Motion to Inter­vene, June 29, 2026
[5]  Med­Pharm Iowa, LLC, Reply in Sup­port of Motion to Inter­vene, July 17, 2026
[6]  Excep­tion for “con­sti­tu­tion­al lim­i­ta­tions … legal sys­tem and domes­tic law”, Arti­cle 36, Sin­gle Con­ven­tion on Nar­cot­ic Drugs, 18 U.S.T. 1407, 520 U.N.T.S. 151
[7]  Excep­tion for “con­sti­tu­tion­al lim­i­ta­tions … legal sys­tem and domes­tic law”, Arti­cle 22, Con­ven­tion on Psy­chotrop­ic Sub­stances, 32 U.S.T. 543, 1019 U.N.T.S. 175