While the Trump administration works to loosen restrictions on cannabis by rescheduling it as a Schedule III substance, a cohort of Senate Democrats is hoping to up the ante: remove it from the federal schedule altogether.
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Seventeen U.S. senators on July 16 reintroduced the Cannabis Administration and Opportunity Act (CAOA), legislation to end the federal prohibition of cannabis by delisting it from the Controlled Substances Act. The bill, first introduced in 2021 and again in 2024, is a comprehensive effort to decriminalize, regulate and tax cannabis.
Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., are spearheading the 2026 rendition, with 14 of their colleagues in the upper chamber signed on as original co-sponsors.
According to the Senate trio, the legislation aims to respect states’ rights to create their own cannabis laws; establish federal regulations to protect public health and safety; install a tiered taxation system; promote government research; prioritize restorative and economic justice; protect workers’ rights; and open the federal banking door for a $30 billion industry that employs nearly 425,000 workers.
“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. “I am proud to reintroduce this commonsense legislation, which will dismantle the unjust and outdated federal marijuana prohibition, establish a federal regulatory framework to protect public health and safety, expunge past convictions for low-level cannabis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.”
Due to racial profiling and bias in cannabis enforcement, Black people are 3.6 times more likely than white people to be arrested for possession in the U.S., despite similar cannabis usage rates, according to a 2020 report from the American Civil Liberties Union.
Cannabis-related convictions can impact an individual’s employment, housing, education, medical and parental rights and opportunities.
“The overcriminalization of cannabis has destroyed far too many lives, disproportionately harming communities of color,” Schumer said. “Our Cannabis Administration and Opportunity Act is necessary and would correct historical wrongs while investing in safety, research, workers’ rights and banking accessibility for industry. The movement is budding, and I won’t stop until restorative justice is achieved. The American people overwhelmingly support the federal legalization of cannabis – it’s long past time the government caught up.”
As of 2025, 64% of Americans support legalizing cannabis for nonmedical and medical use, which was down slightly from a 70% support peak in 2023, according to Gallup pollsters.
While 42 states have legalized medical cannabis programs, including 24 states with adult-use cannabis laws, prohibitionist organizations have launched campaigns attempting to repeal adult-use programs in Massachusetts, Maine and Arizona, the latter of which has rescinded its repeal efforts.
“The only reefer madness I’m seeing is the continued federal prohibition of cannabis,” Wyden said. “Our legislation is the most comprehensive proposal on the books to end federal cannabis prohibition while keeping public health and safety front and center. The federal government needs to get with the times, and our bill is the way to do it.”
The CAOA is a 278-page bill and includes the following co-sponsors: Sens. Michael Bennet, D-Colo.; John Fetterman, D-Pa.; Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y.; John Hickenlooper. D-Colo.; Ben Ray Luján, D-N.M.; Alex Padilla, D-Calif.; Gary Peters, D-Mich.; Tina Smith, D-Minn.; Raphael Warnock, D-Ga.; Ed Markey, D-Mass.; Jeff Merkley, D-Ore.; Patty Murray, D-Wash.; Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass.; and Peter Welch, D-Vt.
According to a summary of the bill, the CAOA would:
Protect public health by:
- Establishing a Center for Cannabis Products to regulate production, labeling, distribution, sales, and other manufacturing and retail elements of the cannabis industry.
- Instructing the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to establish standards for labeling for cannabis products, including potency, doses, servings, place of manufacture and directions for use.
- Establishing programs and funding to prevent youth cannabis use.
- Prohibiting electronic cannabis product delivery systems from containing added flavors.
- Funding state programs to prevent youth use and cannabis-impaired driving, including enforcement, education and data collection.
- Increasing funding for comprehensive opioid, stimulant and substance-use disorder treatment.
- Requiring the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and Indian Health Service (IHS) to provide recommendations and opinions regarding the medical use of cannabis by VA and IHS patients.
Protect public safety by:
- Removing cannabis from the Controlled Substances Act and eliminating federal prohibitions in states that have chosen to legalize medical cannabis or adult-use cannabis.
- Retaining federal prohibitions on trafficking cannabis in violation of state law; establishing a grant program to help departments combat illicit market cannabis.
- Implementing robust anti-diversion rules, including a track-and-trace system, and adopting quantitative limitations on retail purchases.
- Establishing a grant program through the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) to assist small law enforcement departments in hiring officers, investigators and community outreach specialists to combat black market cannabis production and distribution.
- Requiring the Department of Transportation (DOT) to create standards for cannabis-impaired driving.
- Directing the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to collect data on cannabis-impaired driving, create educational materials on best practices and carry out media campaigns intended to prevent cannabis-impaired driving, including a campaign specifically targeted at drivers under the age of 21.
- Incentivizing states to adopt cannabis open-container prohibitions.
Regulate and tax cannabis by:
- Transferring federal jurisdiction over cannabis to the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB).
- Eliminating the tax code’s restriction on cannabis businesses claiming deductions for business expenses and implementing an excise tax on cannabis products.
- For small and mid-sized producers, the excise tax would begin at 5% and gradually increase to a maximum of 12.5%.
- For larger cannabis businesses, the excise tax would begin at 10% and gradually increase to a maximum rate of 25%.
- Establishing market competition rules meant to protect independent producers, wholesalers and retailers and prevent anti-competitive behavior.
- Ensuring regulatory bodies and law enforcement have the resources and tools they need to protect the integrity of the legal cannabis marketplace.
Encourage cannabis research by:
- Requiring the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to study and report on metrics that may be impacted by cannabis legalization.
- Requiring the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to conduct or support research on the impacts of cannabis.
- Requiring the VA to carry out a series of clinical trials studying the effects of medical cannabis on the health outcomes of veterans diagnosed with chronic pain and post-traumatic stress disorder.
- Requiring the Bureau of Labor Statistics to regularly compile and publicize data on the demographics of business owners and employees in the cannabis industry.
- Directing the HHS to increase the diversity and availability of cannabis products for research purposes.
- Establishing grants to build up cannabis research capacity at institutions of higher education, with a particular focus on minority-serving institutions and Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs).
- Expanding programs to increase the supply of cannabis available for research purposes.
Prioritize restorative and economic justice by:
- Using federal tax revenue to fund an Opportunity Trust Fund to reinvest in communities and individuals most harmed by the failed war on drugs.
- Establishing a Cannabis Justice Office at the DOJ Office of Justice Programs.
- Establishing a grant program to provide funding to help minimize barriers to cannabis licensing and employment for individuals adversely impacted by the war on drugs.
- Establishing the Cannabis Restorative Opportunity Program to provide loans and technical assistance to small businesses owned and controlled by socially- and economically disadvantaged individuals in cannabis-legal states.
- Establishing a 10-year pilot program for intermediary lending from the Small Business Administration (SBA), in which SBA would make direct loans to eligible intermediaries that in turn make small business loans to startups, businesses owned by individuals adversely impacted by the war on drugs, and socially and economically disadvantaged small businesses.
- Establishing expedited FDA review of drugs containing cannabis manufactured by small businesses owned by socially and economically disadvantaged individuals.
- Directing the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to establish a grant program to provide communities whose residents have been disproportionately affected by the war on drugs with additional funding to address the housing, economic and community development needs of such residents.
- Initiating automatic expungement of federal nonviolent cannabis offenses and allowing an individual currently serving time in federal prison for a nonviolent cannabis offense to petition a court for resentencing.
- Disallowing the denial of any benefits or protections under immigration law to any noncitizen based on their use or possession of cannabis.
- Preventing discrimination in the provision of federal benefits against people who use cannabis.
Strengthen workers’ rights by:
- Removing unnecessary federal employee preemployment and random drug testing for cannabis.
- Ensuring worker protections for those employed in the cannabis industry.
- Establishing grants for community-based education, outreach and enforcement of workers’ rights in the cannabis industry.
“Americans have made their voices heard across the country, through their ballot boxes, their legislatures and with their dollars: Cannabis prohibition has failed, and it’s time for lawmakers in Washington to respect the rights of states that have chosen to legalize cannabis,” Booker, Schumer and Wyden wrote in the bill’s summary.
“The question today is no longer whether cannabis should be legal – many states have already made that decision on their own initiative. The question is whether cannabis should be subject to the same high regulatory standards that apply to alcohol and tobacco,” they wrote. “Federal regulation is long overdue to ensure that cannabis products are as safe as possible; to prevent access by children and those younger than 21; and to ensure that state and local jurisdictions have the resources they need to combat drugged driving. And critically, federal legislation is needed to ensure that the tens of thousands of people harmed by the failed war on drugs receive justice and that future harm is prevented.”
