Federal Rescheduling Comment: Coalition Filing in the DEA NPRM Proceeding

The Challenge

Following the DEA's publication of a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) proposing reclassification of marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule III of the Controlled Substances Act, a coalition of 47 cannabis industry organizations — operators, trade associations, advocacy groups, and ancillary service providers — retained Hoban Law Group to draft and coordinate a unified formal comment submission for the public record.

The NPRM comment period was 60 days. The coalition's members had divergent interests: some wanted the comment to endorse Schedule III fully; others advocated for descheduling or a different scheduling pathway. The challenge was to produce a single legally rigorous comment that advanced the coalition's core priorities — relief from §280E, banking access, and inter-state commerce — without fracturing the coalition over differences in ultimate policy preference.

The legal stakes were high: the comment would be part of the formal administrative record that any reviewing court would examine if the rulemaking were challenged.

Our Approach

Coalition Coordination. Bob Hoban convened a working group of coalition members and facilitated a structured deliberation process to identify the comment's core positions. We separated the "must-have" points — Schedule III's immediate impact on §280E, banking access, and research pathways — from the "aspirational" points on which member organizations diverged.

Legal Drafting. The comment was structured as a formal administrative law submission: a statement of the coalition's standing to comment, a summary of the proposed rule, a point-by-point analysis of each element of the NPRM, and a request for specific modifications to the final rule. The 280E section was the longest: we documented the aggregate federal tax burden across the industry and provided original analysis of the revenue impact of Schedule III treatment on deduction eligibility.

Banking and SAFE. The comment argued that Schedule III reclassification, while not directly resolving the Bank Secrecy Act's marijuana business restrictions, would reduce the risk profile for financial institutions and should accelerate SAFE Banking Act momentum.

Secondary Comments. In addition to the unified coalition comment, we assisted 11 individual member organizations in preparing targeted supplemental comments addressing their specific operational circumstances.

The Outcome

The coalition comment was entered into the DEA's formal administrative record. The comment was cited in subsequent congressional testimony by two members of the Senate Judiciary Committee and was referenced in a National Association of Attorneys General policy brief on federal cannabis rescheduling.

Bob Hoban testified before the Senate Caucus on International Narcotics Control as an expert witness on the cannabis industry's regulatory and tax implications of Schedule III reclassification, drawing directly on the coalition comment's analysis.