Federal Reform — MORE Act, SAFE Banking & Rescheduling Limbo

While states legalized cannabis one by one, federal law remained frozen. Cannabis was Schedule I in 1970. It is Schedule I in April 2026. The intervening fifty-six years produced a series of legislative attempts, executive actions, and regulatory proceedings — none of which changed the fundamental legal status of the drug. The history of federal cannabis reform is a history of bills that pass one chamber and die in the other, executive actions that sound transformative and accomplish little, and regulatory processes that move at glacial speed toward outcomes that may never arrive.

The MORE Act

The Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement Act would have removed cannabis from the Controlled Substances Act entirely — not rescheduled it, but descheduled it. It would have imposed a federal excise tax, created a process for expunging federal cannabis convictions, and established grant programs for communities affected by the war on drugs. The House passed it twice: 228-164 on December 4, 2020, and 220-204 on April 1, 2022. The Senate never brought it to a floor vote either time.

SAFE Banking

The Secure and Fair Enforcement (SAFE) Banking Act addressed a narrower problem: state-legal cannabis businesses could not access basic financial services because banks feared federal money-laundering prosecution. The bill would have protected financial institutions that served state-legal cannabis companies from federal enforcement. It was the most modest form of federal cannabis reform — it did not legalize anything, did not reschedule anything, and did not expunge anything. It simply allowed banks to take deposits from legal businesses.

The House passed SAFE Banking seven times. The SAFER Banking Act — a Senate version — cleared the Senate Banking Committee in September 2023. Neither version was enacted. The cannabis industry continues to operate as a predominantly cash business, with all the security risks and operational inefficiencies that cash-dependence entails.

The CAOA

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, along with Senators Cory Booker and Ron Wyden, introduced the Cannabis Administration and Opportunity Act (CAOA) in July 2021. The bill was comprehensive — descheduling, expungement, social equity, federal regulation — and it never received a floor vote. Its ambition was its political liability: comprehensive reform required 60 votes in the Senate, and the votes were not there.

Biden's pardons

President Biden's Proclamation 10467, issued October 6, 2022, pardoned all persons convicted of simple marijuana possession under 21 U.S.C. Section 844 and under the D.C. Code. The announcement was framed as a historic step. In practice, it affected an estimated 13,000 to 14,000 federal records — and freed nobody. No one was currently incarcerated in federal prison for simple marijuana possession alone. The pardon cleared records, which had value for employment and housing purposes, but it did not open any prison doors.

Proclamation 10688 on December 22, 2023 expanded the scope to cover additional offenses including use and attempted possession on federal lands. The expansion was incremental. The fundamental limitation remained: federal simple possession convictions were a small fraction of the total cannabis enforcement burden, which fell overwhelmingly at the state and local level.

The rescheduling saga

The most consequential potential federal action was rescheduling — moving cannabis from Schedule I (no accepted medical use, high abuse potential) to Schedule III (accepted medical use, moderate abuse potential). Rescheduling would not legalize cannabis, but it would remove the most punitive tax provision (IRS Section 280E, which prevents cannabis businesses from deducting ordinary business expenses) and acknowledge what forty state medical programs had already concluded: that cannabis has accepted medical use.

On August 29, 2023, HHS Assistant Secretary for Health Dr. Rachel Levine formally recommended that the DEA reclassify cannabis from Schedule I to Schedule III. Attorney General Merrick Garland published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on May 16, 2024. The public comment period drew more than 43,000 submissions. An administrative law judge hearing was scheduled for January 21, 2025 — but was postponed on January 13, eight days before the hearing date. The ALJ retired in August 2025 without issuing a ruling.

The Trump administration

President Trump appointed Pam Bondi as Attorney General and Terrance Cole as DEA Administrator. On September 29, 2025, a memo rescinded prior non-prosecution guidance for cannabis cases — echoing Sessions's 2018 rescission of the Cole Memo. Then, on December 18, 2025, Trump issued Executive Order 14370 directing the completion of the Schedule III rulemaking process.

The two actions pointed in opposite directions: the September memo removed enforcement restraints while the December executive order pushed toward rescheduling. As of April 2026, no final rule has been issued. Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM), the principal anti-legalization organization, retained former Attorney General William Barr to file suit challenging the rescheduling process.