Sponsors (74)
The bill broadly reduces federal criminal penalties and restores benefits, records, and business access for people and state-authorized cannabis operators while providing funding and evidence-generation — but it also creates large administrative costs, legal uncertainty, public‑safety debates, and persistent equity and privacy challenges during implementation.
People with past nonviolent federal (and some state-recognized) cannabis convictions — especially low-income individuals, people of color, and immigrants — will see records sealed/expunged and sentences reviewed or vacated, reducing barriers to employment, housing, and other collateral consequences.
Federal employees, benefit applicants/recipients, security-clearance holders, and prospective licensees/entrepreneurs will gain protections: they cannot be denied Federal benefits, clearances, or licensing solely for cannabis use/convictions, and state-authorized cannabis businesses can access SBA programs and services.
State‑authorized cannabis businesses and ancillary providers (landlords, contractors, service firms) will gain access to SBA loans, guarantees, microloans, technical assistance, and other federal supports, improving financing and business development opportunities in the legal market.
Taxpayers, federal and state courts, and agencies will face large administrative, staffing, and fiscal burdens to review records, hold hearings, issue rules, run studies, and implement new programs across many jurisdictions.
Federal and state courts and prosecutors will face substantial workload increases and legal complexity from vacating or retrying cases, mandated sentencing reviews, and litigation over the scope and retroactivity of relief.
Significant legal and regulatory uncertainty will persist because federal changes (scheduling, terminology, SBA access) may not align with state laws and could be interpreted inconsistently, generating litigation risk and operational uncertainty for employers, lenders, and cannabis businesses.
Based on analysis of 18 sections of legislative text.
Removes federal criminal penalties for cannabis, orders expungement of past non‑violent federal cannabis records, protects immigrants and security clearances from cannabis-based penalties, and creates a tax-funded reinvestment program.
Introduced August 29, 2025 by Jerrold Lewis Nadler · Last progress August 29, 2025
Removes federal criminal and civil penalties for cannabis by striking cannabis from the federal controlled substances schedules, orders federal courts to expunge and seal non‑violent federal cannabis convictions and related records (retroactive to 1971) and requires resentencing reviews for people currently serving related sentences. It creates a federal Opportunity Trust Fund to collect net cannabis tax revenues and directs major investments in community reinvestment, small‑business assistance and equitable licensing, while also protecting immigrants and federal applicants from adverse actions based on past cannabis conduct. Requires multiple federal agencies to study and report on impacts of state recreational legalization (public health, workplace, traffic safety, education, economic and criminal justice outcomes), creates a Cannabis Justice Office at DOJ to run grant programs, directs SBA to run targeted loan and grant programs for socially and economically disadvantaged owners, changes many federal statutes to replace “marijuana/marihuana” with “cannabis,” and adds definitions and protections for cannabis‑related legitimate businesses in SBA law.