The DEA’s lawyers have requested requested an extra 20 days to file their objections to the Judge’s decision. In doing so, they also granted MAPS’ lawyers an additional 20 days. This means that the earliest the DEA will begin to process the Judge’s recommendation will be in mid-May. At that point, the DEA Deputy Administrator has an unlimited amount of time to decided whether to accept or reject the Judge’s non-binding recommendation to grant Prof. Craker a Schedule I license for his MAPS-sponsored marijuana production facility. We expect the decision could come from the DEA anywhere between 3-15 months from May.
Since the Judge’s decision is non-binding, MAPS must coordinate another Congressional lobbying campaign after the DEA’s lawyers file their objections on March 26. Our aim will be to generate sufficient pressure on the DEA to accept the Judge’s recommendation by granting Prof. Craker a Schedule I license, thus breaking NIDA’s marijuana research monopoly and finally paving the way for putting marijuana through FDA clinical trials.
