DEA JUDGE JULIUS TELLS “SAM” NO MORE SKED3 DELAYS – RE-OPENS CASE ON NOV.5–
With a likely loss in Mass’ retail MJ rollback– the millions in SAM-spending against legal cannabis is burned up.
A SAM-led attempt to stall the DEA’s schedule 3 hearing has been quashed by judge Derek Julius who Oct. 22 said adding more briefings on a Government Accounting Office (GAO)memo about “polices and procedures” is “not before the tribunal, and allowing testimony on it would only serve to confuse the matter”…. adding… ”the GAO is not a party to this litigation, and… “now that the GAO report is a part of the record, no further testimony is required concerning it.” The resked hearing process and Julius’ recommendation to the DEA admin Terry Cole may proceed after Nov. 5th, following any additional filings by SAM(led by Kevin Sabet-Shargi) and its’ GAO stall-movants: Nebraska, Idaho and Indiana.
SAM’s legal warchest–funding the law firm of former Trump AG Bill Barr– has now spent millions to thwart the resked movement and has spend over $25Mil. in its (likely unsuccessful) ballot Issue8 to kill retail stores in Massachusetts. Photo below: This year SAM release an anti-MJ slanted documentary– “THC INC”– calling for the end to “Big Marijuana” in the form of MSOs driving psychotic episodes. Also pictured: former Dem Rep. Patrick Kennedy(a SAM co-founder) and SAM’s executive director Luke Niforatas, paid $232,000 annually.
Hiding over $20Mil in undisclosed donations to attack US cannabis access– SAM will still be in court in 2027 trying to hold up a likely DEA rule to remove sked1 status. But first, SAM appears headed for a major voter setback in Massachusetts where SAM has spent millions to bankroll Mass; anti-pot Question 8. And SAM continues to lead the court fight to stop the proposed Medicare-led effort to provide low-potency CBD (up to 3 mg of THC) to senior with an annual $500 benefit for some 62million seniors.
“SAM aren’t going to quietly fade away. Their ties to rehabilitation clinics that profit from court-mandated treatments, particularly for cannabis-related offenses, reveal the financial motivations behind their opposition,” says Texas hemp lawyer Jay McGuire. Other critical reports have also examined Sabets’ claim to be a drug-control expert under Bush, Obama and Clinton– but his millions of secret donors have come mostly from “mandated drug rehab” services which court require parolees/probationers to attend.
Since the GAO report’s issuance, three of the anti-rescheduling parties – DUID Victim Voices, Kenneth Finn, M.D., and the National Drug and Alcohol Association (NDASA) – have argued that the report could provide significant evidence to back their position that cannabis should remain listed in Schedule I.
The DEA has since rejected the report’s weight, arguing that it’s “immaterial to the actual scientific processes and analysis” that it and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) use in scheduling controlled substances.
Reporting from Boston’s WGBH: “SAM’s nonprofit status means it is not required to disclose their funding sources, which has led some pro-marijuana groups to label the organization as “dark money”. SAM maintains that it is primarily funded through grassroots donations, family foundations and conference speaking fees. Sabet said they don’t disclose their donors to protect families that might be targeted or harassed if they were made public.
“I’ve been approached by parents who have just spent $250,000 on treatment for their son because of marijuana use addiction,” Sabet said. “They’re afraid to talk about it in public.”
Question 8 has also generated a wave of online speculation that it’s being driven by the alcohol or tobacco lobby to undercut cannabis sales. Sabet dismisses those claims as “conspiracy theories.” “From our point of view, we have nothing to hide,” he said. “I’ve been very open that we are getting money from families that have lived this nightmare.”
McGuire’s Texas Hemp Reporter(with A.I. graphic above) pulled SAMs’ newest federal tax filings from the IRS revealing “a complex trail of millions which Sabet has moved from public to deeply secret spots all aimed at protecting his SAM donors.”
Writes McGuire: “What emerges is a portrait Sabet himself might have sketched, had the subject been anyone else: a $23 million war chest assembled almost entirely in the dark, a disclosed charity quietly starved while its unaccountable political twin balloons.” McGuires’ report: https://lnkd.in/gquTAs-U
A DEA final order will likely re-enforce MedMJs move to sked3–which may still may occur by Dec 31, 2026.
