"Former DEA Section Chief Questions Abandonment of 2020 LAW, Registration Protocols, and Standards as Millions in Cannabis Industry Political Spending Surround Rescheduling", said Duane Boise CEO of MMJ International Holdings.
WASHINGTON, DC / ACCESS Newswire / June 20, 2026 / MMJ International Holdings, Inc. (MMJIH), together with its subsidiaries MMJ BioPharma Cultivation, Inc. and MMJ BioPharma Labs, Inc. (collectively, "MMJ"), today called attention to what it describes as a growing disconnect between federal regulatory standards, constitutional safeguards, and the political and financial forces surrounding the federal government's marijuana rescheduling effort.
The company's concerns follow public statements by retired DEA Section Chief Jorge Jimenez, who spent nearly two decades overseeing controlled substance registrations at DEA Headquarters and was directly responsible for supervising the registration of bulk manufacturers, importers, exporters, and other DEA registrants nationwide.
According to Jimenez, the federal government now appears poised to create a fundamentally different regulatory pathway for state marijuana operators than the one historically required of federally compliant applicants.
"Jorge Jimenez ran the very registration programs now being set aside," said Duane Boise, President and CEO of MMJ International Holdings.
"When the person who spent years enforcing DEA registration standards publicly says those standards are being abandoned, policymakers, investors, and the public should pay attention. This is not an outside critic. This is someone who helped build the system."
The Constitutional Question Nobody Wants to Discuss
Jimenez's concerns arrive as DEA prepares for its June 29 marijuana rescheduling hearing under a cloud of unresolved constitutional questions.
In February 2025, the Department of Justice acknowledged constitutional defects involving the protections afforded administrative law judges. Yet DEA continues moving forward with one of the most consequential drug policy hearings in modern American history.
According to MMJ, the contradiction is impossible to ignore.
"The federal government has already acknowledged constitutional concerns involving administrative adjudication," Boise said.
"Yet the hearing continues as if nothing happened. If the process itself remains legally vulnerable, the public deserves to know why the government is racing forward rather than resolving those issues first."
Follow the Money
MMJ also notes that the rescheduling debate is unfolding amid unprecedented political and financial activity from cannabis industry stakeholders.
Publicly available disclosures show millions of dollars in political contributions from cannabis operators, trade organizations, investors, and related industries flowing into political committees and organizations with influence in federal policymaking.
Those contributions have become increasingly difficult to separate from the broader debate over marijuana rescheduling, tax treatment, regulatory reform, and market access.
"Nobody is suggesting that contributions alone determine policy," Boise said.
"But when billions of dollars in potential tax benefits, market expansion opportunities, and investment gains are at stake, the public has every right to ask questions. Transparency is not anti-business. Transparency is good government."
A Different Path
Unlike many participants in the cannabis industry, MMJ spent nearly a decade pursuing cannabinoid medicines through the federal pharmaceutical pathway.
The company obtained FDA Investigational New Drug authorizations, secured FDA Orphan Drug Designation, imported cannabinoid active pharmaceutical ingredients under federal authorization, completed GMP manufacturing, generated stability data, developed clinical formulations, and established a DEA-registered analytical laboratory.
According to MMJ, the issue is not marijuana.
It is standards.
"MMJ is not anti-marijuana," Boise said.
"We are anti-bad-science. We believe cannabinoids may have tremendous therapeutic value. That is why we spent years developing them under FDA standards. The question is whether those standards still matter."
The Public Deserves Answers
As the June 29 hearing approaches, MMJ believes several questions remain unanswered:
Why are longstanding DEA registration standards being altered?
Why is the government proceeding despite acknowledged constitutional concerns?
Why are federally compliant pharmaceutical developers still waiting while new pathways emerge for state operators?
And why are these questions receiving less attention than the financial benefits associated with Schedule III?
"Laws are rarely abandoned all at once," Boise said.
"They are usually set aside gradually, while everyone benefiting from the outcome insists nothing unusual is happening. Jorge Jimenez spent his career inside the system. He's raising concerns. We think the public deserves to hear them."
About MMJ International Holdings
MMJ International Holdings, through MMJ BioPharma Cultivation and MMJ BioPharma Labs, is a pharmaceutical cannabinoid development company pursuing FDA botanical drug development and DEA registration through federal regulatory pathways. MMJ maintains active FDA Investigational New Drug applications, holds FDA Orphan Drug Designation for Huntington's disease, and holds a DEA Schedule I registered analytical laboratory.
CONTACT:
Madison Hisey
MHisey@mmjih.com
203-231-8583
SOURCE: MMJ International Holdings
View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire:
https://www.accessnewswire.com/newsroom/en/healthcare-and-pharmaceutical/follow-the-flow-of-the-marijuana-money-former-dea-chief-questions-why-1179099
