10/01/2026
The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) proceeding considering whether to move ma*****na from Schedule I to Schedule III has been temporarily paused while a judge considers a new Government Accountability Office (GAO) report that identified gaps in federal policies and procedures for evaluating and scheduling controlled substances.
Earlier this summer, SPAN urged the Department of Justice to consider the unique risks that ma*****na rescheduling may pose to people with schizophrenia and psychosis before moving forward. The schizophrenia and psychosis community must have a voice in decisions that could directly affect them.
An estimated 8% to 32% of psychotic disorders might be prevented if heavy cannabis use were stopped. The risk of developing psychosis is especially high during adolescence and increases with more frequent and heavier cannabis use. Increasing THC potency further compounds these risks.
As federal officials reconsider ma*****na rescheduling, SPAN continues to call for the potential impact on people living with schizophrenia and psychosis, those who may be vulnerable to developing psychosis, and their families and caregivers to be fully considered.
Our community cannot be an afterthought in federal ma*****na policy.
BREAKING: Ma*****na rescheduling has been halted.
A DEA administrative law judge has stayed the rescheduling proceeding for two weeks and ordered new briefing after a Government Accountability Office report on how federal agencies schedule drugs.
The entire rescheduling rests on HHS's "two-part test," which was created only after ma*****na failed DEA's long-standing five-part test. Now FDA has told GAO the two-part test "has not replaced other methods" and is only "an additional framework."
GAO also found:
• DEA has no policies or procedures for how its staff evaluate or schedule substances.
• FDA has no definition of "potential for abuse," the central question in every scheduling decision.
• The agreement governing how FDA consults NIDA on scheduling is more than 40 years old.
"An entire rescheduling was built on a shortcut its own authors call optional. That is not science. It is improvisation with a lab coat on, and the stakes are every kid in America." Dr. Kevin Sabet, President of SAM
Read the full release: https://learnaboutsam.org/2026/09/ma*****na-rescheduling-proceeding-halted-after-federal-watchdog-report/
More reading: https://thedrugreport.org/2026/09/29/ma*****na-rescheduling-paused-gao-report/
