[PRESS RELEASE] – BOSTON, Jan. 7, 2024 – Dr. Marion McNabb, the president of the Cannabis Center of Excellence, has received approval from federal administrative law judge (ALJ) John J. Mulrooney to serve as one of only 24 expert witnesses allowed to testify at the historic hearing to reschedule cannabis at the federal level. McNabb has a master’s and a doctorate in public health.

McNabb’s public health education, research, regulatory expertise, and leadership in the cannabis industry will be a vital part of the hearing on Jan. 28, 2025. Testimonies for the hearing are scheduled to run from Jan. 21 through March 6, with Mulrooney to make a nonbinding rescheduling recommendation to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) at the conclusion.

McNabb is the principal investigator of eight real-world cannabis population-level research studies examining why and how medical patients and consumers use cannabis. She was nominated by Massachusetts Treasurer Deborah Goldberg to sit as the cannabis retail appointee on the Cannabis Advisory Board (CAB) in Massachusetts from 2021-2023. McNabb is a cannabis legal expert for cannabis clients in Massachusetts, received a contract from the Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission to design and teach 11 social equity training courses, and she co-founded the Cannabis Education Center at Holyoke Community College.

Ellen Brown, a U.S. Air Force veteran and long-standing medical cannabis advocate, is the founder of Green Path Training, a cannabis education company in Massachusetts. In 2024, Brown was nominated by Goldberg to sit on the CAB as the expert in cannabis cultivation appointee; she is currently serving as the chair of the board’s Research Subcommittee. In October, Brown was selected as one of the 25 designated participants by DEA Administrator Anne Milgram allowed to testify in the 2025 cannabis rescheduling hearings.

Mulrooney, the ALJ presiding over the hearing, instructed designated participants to provide the court with an expert witness who could speak to the eight factors of potential abuse and currently accepted medical uses of cannabis. It’s important to note that the designated participants need to provide a witness who could pass the Daubert Standard. Brown has selected McNabb, whom Brown has known for a decade and considers to be a colleague, friend, and mentor.

“It’s an honor to have Dr. McNabb as my expert witness,” Brown said. “As a designated participant I have a responsibility to provide the court with a witness who can provide probative, material and relative information. Dr. McNabb is able to provide that information, meets Daubert standards, and is someone who I deeply respect for her work in cannabis research. Over the years I’ve gotten to know Dr. McNabb and I have a great admiration for how she has pioneered the cannabis industry all while keeping medical patients and inclusion at the forefront of the conversation.”

McNabb will be testifying on Jan. 28, 2025, at the DEA headquarters in Virginia. This will be the first time the United States has held a hearing on cannabis rescheduling since NORML’s 22-year attempt that began in 1972 during the Nixon administration.

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McNabb is one of only 15 expert witnesses who will be testifying in support of rescheduling cannabis.

“It is a tremendous honor to stand beside my colleague Ellen Brown in support of rescheduling cannabis at the federal level as an expert witness,” McNabb said. “I am prepared to share scientific research and evidence-based testimony on Jan. 28 to be considered by Honorable Judge Mulrooney.”