By MMJ International Presses DEA On Rescheduling Contradiction
MMJ International Holdings, Inc., a pharmaceutical company developing standardized cannabinoid investigational medicines through the FDA botanical drug development pathway, publicly questioned the Drug Enforcement Administration on September 17, 2026, in Washington, D.C. The company asked what DEA is supposed to do when the Attorney General’s rescheduling order rests on confidence in state marijuana regulatory systems, while the government’s own published findings identify those same state-licensed systems as a source of diversion.
The evidentiary record in the pending marijuana rescheduling proceeding is closed. The matter now awaits the Administrative Law Judge’s recommended decision to DEA Administrator Terry Cole.
Attorney General Order No. 6754-2026, published at 91 Fed. Reg.
22714 on April 28, 2026, placed FDA-approved marijuana products and state-licensed medical marijuana in Schedule III. It also created an expedited federal registration pathway for state licensees.
The Order stated, “These state regimes have developed robust infrastructure for preventing diversion, ensuring product safety, maintaining records, and conducting facility inspections-functions that fulfill the objectives of federal registration and recordkeeping requirements.”
The Order then says “In light of that record” but never identifies the record, according to MMJ International. No study, inspection data, diversion statistics, or state audit appears anywhere in it.
Government Findings Point The Other Way
The same DEA assessment states, “THC levels in marijuana continue to climb and are largely unregulated in states where marijuana has been legalized … Product labeling is not controlled and is often significantly inaccurate.”
It also reports, “In 2024, marijuana seized in Oklahoma accounted for 66 percent of the total amount seized by DEA.” DEA notes the seizure state is not necessarily where the marijuana was grown or destined.
The 2026 National Drug Control Strategy, issued by the Office of National Drug Control Policy on May 4, 2026, states that criminal groups “systematically exploit states where marijuana has been legalized under state law, leveraging these markets and lax regulations to establish massive, unlicensed cultivation operations.”
The strategy reports law enforcement estimates that Chinese criminal groups run more than 80% of Oklahoma’s thousands of marijuana and hemp farms, and that in 2023 the state’s marijuana production exceeded its entire licensed medical demand by at least 32 times, with an estimated 85.5 million plants unaccounted for.
What Happens Next
The company also points to a market study commissioned by the Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority, An Empirical Assessment of Oklahoma’s Medical Marijuana Market, published in June 2023. The state regulator paid for the study.
It found a regulated supply-to-demand ratio of 64:1, roughly 32 times a healthy market.
