U.S. Senator John Fetterman has announced his support for a renewed effort by Senate Democrats to legalize marijuana at the federal level. Fetterman joined over a dozen of his Democratic colleagues in reintroducing the Cannabis Administration and Opportunity Act, a sweeping piece of legislation that would remove cannabis from the federal list of controlled substances. The bill, which was reintroduced last Thursday by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer along with Senators Cory Booker and Ron Wyden, currently has 14 Democratic cosponsors. The legislation was previously introduced in 2021 and 2024.
In a statement released on Tuesday, the Pennsylvania senator described himself as having a “very libertarian slant” on the issue and emphasized his long-standing advocacy for cannabis legalization by declaring he has “always been very pro-weed”. Fetterman stated that he will not judge anyone for using marijuana to take the edge off of life, adding that an individual’s path to wellness should be legal, safe, regulated, and free from judgment or punishment.
If passed, the legislation would implement several major changes to federal cannabis policy, starting with removing marijuana from the Controlled Substances Act to eliminate federal bans in states that have already legalized the plant for medical or recreational use. The measure would also pave the way for the automatic expungement of nonviolent, marijuana-related criminal records and allow individuals currently in federal prison for such offenses to petition for resentencing. Furthermore, the bill proposes establishing a Center for Cannabis Products to regulate the industry, eliminating tax restrictions currently placed on cannabis-related businesses, and ending pre-employment and random marijuana drug testing for federal workers. It also mandates that the Department of Transportation develop new standards to address cannabis-impaired driving.
While two dozen states and Washington, D.C. have legalized recreational marijuana, and 41 states, including Pennsylvania, allow medical marijuana, the drug currently remains federally prohibited. Meanwhile, at the state level, efforts to legalize recreational cannabis within Pennsylvania’s legislature have recently stalled in Harrisburg.
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