Puerto Rico: DEA Names Only Reform Opponents for June 29 Hearing

As of 21 June 2026, the federal hearing that could move all cannabis to Schedule III is eight days from opening, and the Drug Enforcement Administration has named only opponents of rescheduling to participate. For Puerto Rico operators running the Caribbean’s largest medical cannabis market, the panel composition raises the odds that the broader move stalls.

The hearing begins 29 June at the DEA Hearing Facility in Arlington, Virginia, and must conclude by 15 July. The Justice Department’s 23 April order placed FDA-approved products and state-licensed medical cannabis into Schedule III. The June hearing will decide whether the rule expands to cover all cannabis. Marijuana Moment first reported the participant list on 18 June.

Who Got In

The DEA invited Smart Approaches to Marijuana, the National Drug & Alcohol Screening Association, DUID Victim Voices, and the attorneys general of Nebraska, Idaho, Indiana, and Louisiana. Two individual physicians, Kenneth Finn and Phillip Drum, were also named. Every participant has publicly opposed cannabis reform.

The Drug Policy Alliance, NORML, and the American Trade Association for Cannabis & Hemp filed to participate and were rejected. DEA Administrator Terrance Cole wrote that supporters of the rule cannot demonstrate they are “adversely affected or aggrieved” by it, the threshold the agency uses for “interested person” status. Cat Packer of the Drug Policy Alliance told Marijuana Moment that “more than 70 percent of public comments supported decriminalization.”

What It Means for Puerto Rico

The partial Schedule III order that took effect 28 April already applies to Puerto Rico’s 150-plus licensed dispensaries operating under Act 42-2017. That change was covered in the DEA registration portal piece at the end of April and removed Section 280E tax exposure for the island’s operators.

A broader Schedule III move would carry further consequences. Banking access, which is still tied up in practice across the Caribbean medical-cannabis trade, would loosen further. Barbados has already pushed local banks to reopen the question. Puerto Rico’s stalled adult-use legalization debate would also face less of a federal-law headwind.

If the panel composition foreshadows the outcome, none of that arrives this summer. Operators planning around a full reclassification should treat the partial order as the floor for now.

What to Watch

The hearing recesses 3 July for the US Independence Day and reconvenes 6 July. A DEA administrative law judge oversees the proceedings and will issue a recommendation; the final scheduling decision rests with the agency. For travelers, nothing at the dispensary counter shifts during the hearing window. Tourist medical-card holders can continue to use the 30-day temporary permit under Regulation 9038. Cruise lines visiting San Juan still prohibit CBD and cannabis products onboard, regardless of what the DEA decides on land.