American Jurisprudence    

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The American Jurisprudence Track examines how courts, judges, attorneys, and law-enforcement professionals are navigating the rapidly evolving legal issues surrounding cannabis, hemp, impaired driving, workplace disputes, civil liability, and constitutional criminal procedure. Sessions emphasize case law development, evidentiary standards, litigation strategy, forensic science interpretation, and real-world courtroom and field-enforcement challenges.

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Cannabis Toxicology and Pharmacokinetics   

Session Chair/s: Robert  Fitzgerald

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This session examines the complex scientific foundations of cannabis toxicology and pharmacokinetics, with emphasis on how different delivery systems influence absorption, metabolism, and delectability. The discussion will explore the implications for impairment assessment, forensic toxicology, and regulatory frameworks.

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From Rulemaking to Reality: Synthesizing the Legal Impact on the Cannabis Industry    

Session Chair/s: Ian Rassman

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This facilitated session synthesizes key regulatory and policy themes emerging across the country. It provides an integrated analysis of how cannabis laws are being developed, implemented, and adapted across federal, state, and local systems, and how these changes are impacting the cannabis industry.

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Topics include:

Regulatory trends and policy evolution

Implementation challenges across jurisdictions

Industry compliance realities

Gaps between regulatory intent and practical outcomes

Designed for regulators, policymakers, researchers, and industry professionals, this session delivers a comprehensive view of where cannabis policy is heading—and where current frameworks may require recalibrating.

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Marijuana Rescheduling: Past, Present, and Future  

Session Chair/s: Alex Kreit

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After more than fifty-five years, the United States government is on the verge of moving marijuana out of Schedule I, the most restrictive category in the federal Controlled Substances Act. In May 2024, then-Attorney General Merrick Garland issued a notice of proposed rulemaking to move marijuana to Schedule III—a change now making its way, slowly, through the administrative process. Underlying the rescheduling proposal is a significant divide within the federal government over how to interpret the CSA’s scheduling provisions. Schedule I substances are those with a “high potential for abuse,” “no currently accepted medical use,” and “a lack of accepted safety for use.” But the CSA does not define these terms, and the Drug Enforcement Administration has long interpreted them strictly. In the lead-up to the rescheduling notice, the Department of Health and Human Services—tasked by the CSA with conducting a scientific and medical evaluation in scheduling proceedings—abandoned the DEA’s tests for assessing medical use and abuse potential. HHS’s analysis, under this new approach, formed the basis for the rescheduling proposal. 

This panel will examine the past, present, and future of marijuana under the CSA. Presenters will address questions including interpretations of the CSA’s scheduling criteria, the practical effects of rescheduling, and the prospects of litigation over the pending rescheduling proposal.

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Novel Approaches to Detecting Cannabis-related Impairment: Challenges and Opportunities    

Session Chair: Tom Marcotte

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As cannabis legalization expands, a central scientific and public health challenge remains: how to detect acute impairment—particularly in the context of road safety—with methods that are both sensitive and specific. Unlike alcohol, THC concentrations in blood or oral fluid do not reliably correlate with functional impairment, and traditional roadside approaches such as standardized field sobriety tests have significant limitations. This session brings together leading researchers developing novel impairment detection methods, including:

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Mobile cognitive testing platforms (phones/tablets) assessing driving-relevant functions

Portable functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) measuring prefrontal cortical activity

Pupillary and ocular response tracking following THC exposure

The session concludes with a panel discussion addressing:

Individual variability in impairment

Field usability and device form factors

Barriers to legal and regulatory adoption

 

 

Rescheduled, Not Safe for Work: Cannabis, Schedule III, and the New Fault Lines in Employment Law    

Session Chair/s: Trisha Zulick

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Cannabis’s move from Schedule I to Schedule III has immediate and unresolved consequences for employers, HR professionals, and workplace policymakers. While rescheduling signals federal recognition of medical value, it does not legalize cannabis, eliminate impairment risks, or harmonize conflicting federal and state employment rules.
This session examines how the schedule change affects workplace drug policies, accommodation requests, safety-sensitive positions, and employee discipline. Panelists will analyze the growing gap between evolving medical and scientific understandings of cannabis and the blunt tools employers continue to rely on—urinalysis, zero-tolerance policies, and outdated impairment assumptions. The discussion will address how Schedule III status may influence ADA accommodation analysis, wrongful termination claims, unemployment benefits, workers’ compensation, and collective bargaining agreements, particularly in states with employee-protective cannabis statutes. Speakers will also explore whether rescheduling alters employer liability exposure, federal contractor obligations, and HR risk management strategies in regulated industries. Rather than offering simplistic compliance checklists, this session provides a doctrinal and practical framework for navigating cannabis in the modern workplace—clarifying what the law now requires, what it still prohibits, and where litigation risk is most likely to emerge.

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