A byline by Ricardo Baca, Found and CEO of Grasslands
As this column publishes, the most consequential cannabis policy proceeding in American history is concluding inside a windowless hearing room in Arlington, Virginia—and the public isn’t allowed to watch.
The DEA’s chief administrative law judge ruled the rescheduling hearing would not be televised, livestreamed, or broadcast in any way. I spent 24 years in American newsrooms, including as The Denver Post’s first-ever Cannabis Editor, and I can tell you: I have never seen a drug policy decision this consequential conducted this quietly.
So let me tell you what we know about U.S. rescheduling, and what it means for European operators.
First, how we got here. Cannabis has been misclassified as Schedule I, heroin’s tier, since the 1970 Controlled Substances Act. Then came the sprint: President Trump’s December 18 executive order directing the attorney general to expedite rescheduling, followed by an April 24 order placing FDA-approved products and all state-licensed medical cannabis in Schedule III, effective April 28.
The absurdity a European reader should savor: adult-use cannabis, often grown in the same facilities, by the same cultivators, from the same plants, remains Schedule I. This hearing, which began June 29 and ended July 15, decides whether that split ends.
Because journalists were locked out, we owe what we know to determined trade reporting. Marijuana Moment documented the hearing’s structural scandal: the DEA designated seven parties to participate, and all seven oppose rescheduling, while NORML, the Marijuana Policy Project and every pro-reform applicant was denied. Yet in a remarkable role reversal, the government’s own case argues for cannabis‘ medical value: per Vicente’s hearing dispatches, FDA scientist Dr. Dominic Chiapperino defended the two-part medical-use analysis, and pain physician Dr. Corey Burchman testified that medical cannabis genuinely helps pain patients.
The wrinkle: under cross-examination, Chiapperino conceded cannabis likely wouldn’t have passed the government’s older five-part test, a record point opponents will ride into federal court.
Week two belonged to the prohibitionists: Dr. Kenneth Finn attacking the FDA’s evidence as built on low-potency trials, a Tennessee Bureau of Investigation agent describing multi-ton seizures, and four holdout states—Nebraska, Idaho, Indiana and Louisiana—closing the case. The delicious twist: even an opposition witness acknowledged cannabis fits the Schedule III standard.
What happens next is procedure, then litigation. Post-hearing briefs precede the judge’s recommendation; a final rule lands realistically in late 2026 or 2027. The bigger brake is the courtroom: attorney Jason Adelstone of Harris Sliwoski analyzes that the pending D.C. Circuit challenge is „more likely than not“ to produce a stay if petitioners establish standing and the court reaches the merits. The direction is set; the timeline is a lawsuit-shaped question mark.
Now, the part that matters for your balance sheet. The April order did something under-appreciated in Europe: it amended DEA regulations to create import and export permits for state-licensed medical cannabis. The legal portal for transatlantic trade is genuinely open, in both directions.
But legal permission is not pharmaceutical qualification. German pharmacy channels demand GACP-compliant cultivation and EU-GMP-certified manufacturing, and effectively zero U.S. facilities hold EU-GMP today. BfArM-pathway audits realistically require 12–24 months of facility preparation, documentation and inspection queues; the new CSQ EU-GMP addendum only begins audits late this year.
My honest estimate: meaningful U.S.-to-EU flower export is a 2028 story. Near-term, the flows run the other way, with EU-GMP holders exploring the newly opened American medical market with capital, genetics and partnerships moving first. Germany’s appetite—142 tonnes consumed in the first nine months of 2025, roughly 40–50 percent of EU medical imports by value—is precisely why American producers will make that GMP investment.
Whichever way the judge rules, America has crossed its Rubicon: it now recognizes medical cannabis federally and has wired itself into the Single Convention’s global trade architecture. European operators who spend the next 18 months building U.S. relationships, qualifying partners and watching the litigation will be positioned the moment the paperwork catches up. The next decade of cannabis is transatlantic.
About Ricardo Baca
Ricardo Baca is founder and CEO of global cannabis PR and marketing firm Grasslands: A Journalism-Minded Agency® and was The Denver Post’s first-ever cannabis editor. He is a voting member of Colorado’s Natural Medicine Advisory Board, helping steer psychedelic and drug policy in the state.
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