A Republican congressman has withdrawn an amendment to a fentanyl-related bill that was aimed at undermining the ongoing marijuana rescheduling process.
Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-GA) filed the measure this week with aims of attaching it to the underlying bill meant to ramp up fentanyl criminalization. The amendment would have stripped the U.S. attorney general’s authority to facilitate drug scheduling decisions and blocked the use of a revised scientific review standard for “currently accepted medical use” that was utilized in a still-pending cannabis rescheduling proposal.
But ahead of a House Rules Committee meeting on Tuesday for the Halt All Lethal Trafficking of Fentanyl Act, or HALT Fentanyl Act, Clyde pulled back his amendment for unknown reasons.
While the underlying bill would also streamline research into Schedule I drugs like marijuana and certain psychedelics—in addition to increasing penalties related to fentanyl-related offenses—the congressman’s amendment would have stipulated that the attorney general delegate scheduling decisions to the administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), further specifying that he or she “may not delegate any such functions [of drug scheduling] to any other officer or employee of the Department of Justice.”
This appeared to be responsive to criticism from anti-cannabis legislators about the process
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