As the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) weighs whether to move cannabis to Schedule III, a group of Senate Democrats is pushing for a far bigger change: ending federal cannabis prohibition altogether.
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Senators Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) reintroduced the Cannabis Administration and Opportunity Act (CAOA) on July 16, legislation that would remove cannabis from the Controlled Substances Act entirely rather than reclassify it. If passed, the bill would allow states to continue setting their own cannabis laws while establishing a federal framework for regulating the industry.
The proposal goes well beyond the federal government’s ongoing effort to reschedule cannabis from Schedule I to Schedule III. While rescheduling would ease some tax burdens for licensed operators and acknowledge cannabis’s accepted medical use, it would leave federal prohibition in place.
The CAOA instead would federally deschedule the plant, create pathways to expunge certain federal convictions, establish national labeling and regulatory standards, and eliminate the 280E tax penalty for state-licensed cannabis businesses. The legislation also includes new hemp provisions that would prevent the federal recriminalization of hemp-derived THC products currently scheduled to take effect in November.
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“For decades, generations have suffered unjustly under the failed War on Drugs and broken cannabis laws—hurting primarily people of color. It is long overdue that we stand up for them,” Booker said in a statement announcing the bill.
“I am proud to reintroduce this commonsense legislation, which will dismantle the unjust and outdated federal marijuana prohibition, establish a federal regulatory framework to protect public health and safety, expunge past convictions for low-level cannabis offenses, and deliver restorative justice to the communities most harmed by decades of failed drug policy.”
The legislation faces long odds in the current Congress, and similar versions introduced in previous sessions have failed to advance. Still, its reintroduction signals that some lawmakers are continuing to push for full federal legalization even as the federal government’s rescheduling process continues through the DEA.