A coalition of 22 state attorneys general is calling on Congress to address “the glaring vagueness” that has led to legal cannabis products being sold over the counter across the country …

A coalition of 22 state attorneys general is calling on Congress to address “the glaring vagueness” that has led to legal cannabis products being sold over the counter across the country — including sometimes from vending machines or online.

A letter dated March 20 addresses the consequences of Republican lawmakers’ choice to legalize hemp production in the 2018 omnibus Farm Bill — a decision that perhaps inadvertently led to a multibillion-dollar market in intoxicating cannabis products that are arguably federally legal.

Now, the attorneys general want Congress to shutter the market it helped create. In the new Farm Bill, they want the legislature to enshrine in statute the idea that intoxicating cannabis is not federally legal — contrary to what the law currently states.

  • givesomefucks@lemmy.worldEnglish
    830·
    8 months ago

    Presidents don’t just get to tell the DEA what to do.

    Explain how Biden ordered every federal agency to return to office.

    He started out asking

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/context/read-the-biden-administration-s-return-to-work-memo-for-federal-employees/baa2e8aa-88f2-43db-9f1f-015561451d72/

    Then ordered them to return

    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-01-19/white-house-tasks-cabinet-heads-with-boosting-return-to-office

    Non paywalled article

    https://www.axios.com/2024/01/19/zients-biden-cabinet-return-to-office

    Maybe you don’t have federal experience, but agencies have to do what the president tells them to do.

    It’s the whole “chain of command” thing…

    Edit for your edit:

    Now, the FDA has already recommended changing the scheduling, and the DEA is currently considering it, so the process is actually underway.

    So…

    Absolutely nothing?

    For 80 years the Dem party has been “looking into” FDR wanting universal healthcare. It’s naive to believe this is any different when Dems have been saying the same thing since at least 2008. It doesn’t take 16 years to deschedule. And if you believe there’s still doubts about how harmful cannabis is and if it’s as bad as heroin…

        • dogslayeggs@lemmy.world
          43·
          8 months ago

          Biden is in the Executive side of the government. He is in charge of executing the work of the government. In your example, he chose how those organizations executed their business. He did not choose what outcome those organizations had from the work he directed them to execute. It’s like a professor telling you to research a new thing. They can tell you what work to do and how to do it, but the results of your research should be out of their hands.

          Biden can force them to study legalizing weed. Biden might even be able to propose a law to legalize weed that Congress can vote on, but he knows that vote won’t pass and that the Speaker of the House might not even allow it to come to a vote in the House.

    • ricecake
      73·
      8 months ago

      The president can order the operations of federal agencies, but they can’t order specific procedural outcomes.

      The power of the DEA to schedule drugs comes from Congress, not from the executive branch. Congress created the DEA to build process to review drugs and manage them. The president is in charge of executing that procedure, not changing it or skipping it entirely. The power to effectively make laws is Congress, not the president.
      As weird as it seems, there isn’t actually a loophole where the president can order someone to change the law even if that person is technically their employee.

      • givesomefucks@lemmy.worldEnglish
        319·
        8 months ago

        The power to effectively make laws is Congress, not the president.

        Nothing about descheduling involves passing a law…

        There’s no federal laws about cannabis (technically there is now about hemp).

        It’s illegal federally because it’s scheduled 1.

        Biden 100% can change it, you just don’t seem to understand the process.

        Maybe that’s why so people disagree with me tho. They think this has something to do with laws?

        • ricecake
          10·
          8 months ago

          No, you very much don’t understand how the government works.
          Federal agencies operate with the force of law because they were given regulatory power derived from Congress. The ability for the DEA to manage drug scheduling is derived from it’s congressional creation. They can’t execute the process as they wish, but have to follow the rules created by Congress for them to change the scheduling.

          https://mainelaw.maine.edu/faculty/can-the-president-reschedule-or-deschedule-marijuana/

          There’s a law professor explaining it in nice short form.

          https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/LSB/LSB10655

          A more in depth analysis from the congressional research service.

          Tldr: you are mistaken as to how it works.

          • givesomefucks@lemmy.worldEnglish
            114·
            8 months ago

            Thanks!

            We also argue that the CSA’s scheduling procedure may allow the President to remove marijuana from the CSA’s ambit entirely. This proposition, we acknowledge, is much more uncertain. It would hinge on a reinterpretation of some of the CSA’s key terms, a generous construction of a CSA provision that deals with treaty obligations, and a modicum of deference to the administrative agencies on judicial review.

            Right there, by a source you just vouched for.

            It’s been a busy morning, so I really appreciate you taking the time to link that for me

            • ricecake
              71·
              8 months ago

              Taken out of context, that sentence loses significant meaning.

              We argue that this procedure gives the President—acting through the FDA and DEA—power to reschedule marijuana to a less restrictive schedule (as the Biden Administration is currently trying to do). Those administrative agencies can conclude that marijuana has an accepted medical use and a relatively low potential for abuse—characteristics that align with placement on Schedule III, IV, or V.

              That’s the part you skipped, which indicates that the president has the power to direct the agencies to reevaluate and reschedule. They further contend that this process could be used to entirely unschedule the drug.

              The question being answered in the portion you cherry picked is not if the president has unilateral authority, but rather what the extent of the administrative process they must follow actually is.

              An even more direct segment from the CRS report:

              If the President sought to act in the area of controlled substances regulation, he would likely do so by executive order. However, the Supreme Court has held that the President has the power to issue an executive order only if authorized by “an act of Congress or . . . the Constitution itself.” The CSA does not provide a direct role for the President in the classification of controlled substances, nor does Article II of the Constitution grant the President power in this area (federal controlled substances law is an exercise of Congress’s power to regulate interstate commerce). Thus, it does not appear that the President could directly deschedule or reschedule marijuana by executive order. Although the President may not unilaterally deschedule or reschedule a controlled substance, he does possess a large degree of indirect influence over scheduling decisions. The President could pursue the appointment of agency officials who favor descheduling, or use executive orders to direct DEA, HHS, and FDA to consider administrative descheduling of marijuana. The notice-and-comment rulemaking process would take time, and would be subject to judicial review if challenged, but could be done consistently with the CSA’s procedural requirements. In the alternative, the President could work with Congress to pursue descheduling through an amendment to the CSA.

              • givesomefucks@lemmy.worldEnglish
                19·
                8 months ago

                Man, I thought you understood…

                It’s easier for Biden to deschedule, than it is to reschedule. They’re two different procedures.

                He can deschedule right now. Instead he wants to reschedule, which doesn’t really do much and still keeps it federally illegal, along with defacto illegal in lots of states. And is much harder to accomplish.

                I’m sorry I can’t explain it to you in a way you can understand. But since your own source can’t either, I won’t take it personally

                • ricecake
                  3·
                  8 months ago

                  You aren’t even reading things are you?
                  It’s a report direct from the congressional research service saying “no, the president can’t unilaterally reschedule or deschedule”, and you take that as agreeing with your assertion that he can.

                  You must be trolling.

            • dogslayeggs@lemmy.world
              3·
              8 months ago

              That paragraph you just quoted said it MAY be possible… but only if you completely reinterpret one law, use a wide interpretation of how we deal with treaties, and also just ignore other laws in deference to the President.

              So basically it is only possible if we ignore the law.

    • Dagwood222@lemm.ee
      52·
      8 months ago

      A general can order a private to run into a firefight.

      A general can’t order a private to give him oral sex.

      It’s that whole ‘chain of command’ thing.

      • BombOmOm@lemmy.worldEnglish
        15·
        8 months ago

        Congress explicitly made it the DEA’s job to schedule and deschedule drugs in the Controlled Substances Act. Much like a general can tell a private to do their job by running into a firefight, the president can tell the DEA to do their job by descheduling cannabis.

          • BombOmOm@lemmy.worldEnglish
            15·
            8 months ago

            The DEA is part of the Executive Branch, which the president is the head of. The president tells members of the executive branch, such as the DEA, what to do as a matter of course. Biden even appointed the current head of the DEA, Anne Milgram.

              • BombOmOm@lemmy.worldEnglish
                11·
                8 months ago

                It’s all about that soft power. The most direct form of this is via appointments. Simply choosing a head that wants to deschedule, for example. And that is just the most obvious, there are tons and tons of soft power avenues the president has at his disposal.

                  • BombOmOm@lemmy.worldEnglish
                    11·
                    8 months ago

                    Of course presidents would never appoint people that agree with them politically. Who would ever do that? A complete misuse of power! That is why every Democrat appointed position is even more right-leaning than the ones Republicans put up!

        • dogslayeggs@lemmy.world
          3·
          8 months ago

          No, the president can tell the DEA to do their job, which is studying whether they should deschedule cannabis. He can’t tell them what results their job should have.

          In this metaphor, the general can tell the private to go fight on the battlefield. The general cannot determine whether the private kills people or comes back alive. The general can train the private and give the private all the support and tools necessary to win a fight, but in the end the results come down to the private.

        • ricecake
          6·
          8 months ago

          Do you really not understand that they were illustrating "the power to give orders does not mean every order is legal”?

          The president can order the operations of federal agencies, but they can’t order specific procedural outcomes.

          The power of the DEA to schedule drugs comes from Congress, not from the executive branch. Congress created the DEA to build process to review drugs and manage them. The president is in charge of executing that procedure, not changing it or skipping it entirely. The power to effectively make laws is Congress, not the president.
          As weird as it seems, there isn’t actually a loophole where the president can order someone to change the law even if that person is technically their employee.

      • givesomefucks@lemmy.worldEnglish
        212·
        8 months ago

        What does that have to do with anything anyone is talking about about?

        Biden can tell the DEA to reschedule, and they have to listen.

        It’s part of the DEA’s job to schedule drugs, it’s not their job to hand out blowjobs