State legislatures considered a number of criminal justice reform bills around marijuana this year, but most ultimately failed to make it across the finish line—a trend advocates at the nonprofit Last Prisoner Project (LPP) are calling the “hidden crisis in cannabis reform.”
The state legislatures in all 50 states introduced more than 12 bills to correct the harms that cannabis criminalization has caused. “But most of them were quiet deaths,” says the group. This is the story that has not been told about cannabis reform 2025. Legalization may be advancing but justice continues to be denied. People are profiting off an industry that others are still being punished for—and many statehouses are failing to act.”
LPP’s review of the Florida, Georgia and Alaska bills that would have sealed criminal cannabis records in the past and accelerated the release for people who were incarcerated due to marijuana crimes found them wanting. LPP also found that Massachusetts and New York failed in their efforts to exonerate cannabis convictions.
Virginia legislators passed, however, a bill to resentencing that would have lowered marijuana penalties retroactively. However, Gov. Glenn Youngkin, who has scuttled many drug reform measures during his tenure in office and vetoed this measure.
Adrian Rocha’s statement, to MEDCAN24, stated that “public support for expungement is more than ever strong, but political action has largely stalled.” We’ve seen many bills that could have offered relief this year, but they were quietly dropped without a single hearing.
He added: “We cannot celebrate the legalization of cannabis while thousands continue to live under criminal records or are still behind bars for something which is now legal.” If lawmakers care about justice, they should stop stalling and deliver on their promises.
Rocha also pointed to “bright places that show what can be achieved when activists, legislators, and local communities work together”.
In Maryland and Hawaii, for example, the governor said, “we saw landmark victories which expand access to relief from record and show how cannabis can be used effectively in justice.”
Maryland’s Gov. Wes Moore (D) signed a series of cannabis bills into law in April, including one to require state officials to automatically shield records for low-level marijuana convictions that have been pardoned from public access, and to more broadly expand expungement eligibility for certain other offenses.
It is important to me that I make this clear. This does not mean we are letting repeat criminals off the hook. Moore at the time said, “It is about commonsense.” The people that will benefit from this reform include our families, our friends and even members of our church. These are people who want to progress but can’t because of the paperwork.
Heather Warnken said, Executive Director of the University of Baltimore School of Law Center for Criminal Justice Reform. Marylanders “lived with the incongruous reality” that any probation violation – from a forgotten appointment, to decades old possession of small amounts of marijuana now legal – would prevent them from being able to expunge their record.
The Expungement Reform Act addresses this issue and many more. It removes barriers that thousands of people face because their criminal records are holding them back,” continued she. “Like Gov. “Like Moore’s historic, mass pardon this victory was the result of true partnership.
Last June, Moore pardoned more than 175,000 convictions for low-level marijuana and paraphernalia offenses—a sweeping clemency action granted about a year after the state implemented cannabis legalization. Moore also granted a second mass pardon to people with previous convictions for marijuana possession. The holiday that marks the end of slave trade, Juneteenth is the occasion.
Hawaii lawmakers passed a law this year to speed up the process of expunging records for marijuana offenses. The new law was passed to help expedite the expungement process for people who want their records cleared of past marijuana-related offenses.
Rep. David Tarnas, the sponsor of the bill (D), said to MEDCAN24 that “I think Hawai’i is obliged to give individuals who are still suffering the effects of outdated laws a chance to move forward with their lives.” The bill’s sponsor, Rep. David Tarnas (D), said that it would eliminate the need to conduct extensive manual searches. It will also ensure more people get the help they deserve quickly.
He said that it was time to restore dignity to people and give them opportunities, rather than punishing conduct which is no longer considered criminal.
In Maine and Minnesota, LPP noted, criminal justice reform bills are “still in play—but the path to passage remains uncertain.”
The advocates also mentioned Texas where legislators passed both a bill to increase the use of medical marijuana and a ban on all hemp products that contain any amount detectable of THC.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott (R) has yet to sign the hemp ban legislation. Greg Abbott, the Republican governor of Texas, is expected to sign the legislation.
Jeannette McKenzie, member of the board and director of Texas Cannabis Collective said that the scales of justice are nearing a tipping-point in Texas. But which way they tip remains to be seen. It’s difficult to celebrate increased medical access while simultaneously increasing criminalization of the same plant.
She added, “People deserve and want the right to enjoy and use cannabis in their own way without fear of tyrannical prosecution by government.”
Last Prisoner Project is a long-time advocate of legalizing cannabis, including measures to correct past harms caused by the drug war. The group, which is a coalition made up of cannabis reformers and advocates held an event in May outside the White House urging President Donald Trump free the people still imprisoned for marijuana.
The rally was part of a “Cannabis Unity Week of Action” helmed by LPP that also involved congressional lawmakers who’ve spoken about their own efforts to advance reform on Capitol Hill. Multiple speakers shared their experiences of the criminal system, and spoke about their advocacy efforts. They argued to the government that it was time to end marijuana criminalization.
Trump faces pressure from multiple directions at the federal level to keep his campaign promises and extend the cannabis clemency achieved during the Biden Administration as well as Trump’s first term. It’s often those who have been most directly affected who lead the way.
A marijuana activist pardoned during Trump’s initial term visited the White House in April to discuss future options for clemency with the newly appointed “pardons czar.”
Other former marijuana prisoners who received clemency from Trump during his first term in office staged a separate event outside the White House last month, expressing gratitude for the relief they were given and calling on the new administration to grant the same kind of help to others who are still behind bars for cannabis.
Due to competing priorities, the sponsor of the GOP Marijuana Banking Bill says that he will not be pushing it forward until this fall.