WASHINGTON — Last Prisoner Project (LPP), a national nonprofit working to free people incarcerated for nonviolent cannabis offenses and repair the harms of criminalization, has filed a petition to participate in the Drug Enforcement Administration’s upcoming hearing on the proposed federal rescheduling of cannabis, urging the agency to include the voices of people most directly harmed by decades of marijuana criminalization.
The hearing, scheduled to begin June 29, will consider a proposed rule moving marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule III under the Controlled Substances Act. LPP supports removing cannabis from Schedule I, but argues that rescheduling alone does not go far enough. The organization is calling on the DEA to remove marijuana from the Controlled Substances Act entirely and to confront the ongoing consequences of criminalization for people still incarcerated, on supervision, or living with cannabis convictions.
“The federal government cannot claim to be modernizing cannabis policy while leaving behind the people who paid the highest price for prohibition,” said Executive Director Stephanie Shepard. “If cannabis no longer belongs in Schedule I, then people should no longer be in prison, on probation, or carrying criminal records because of it.”
Adrian Rocha, Director of Policy for Last Prisoner Project, added, “Any federal conversation about cannabis reform that does not include the people punished under these laws is incomplete. For decades, people have been arrested, incarcerated, separated from their families, denied jobs and housing, and blocked from accessing medical cannabis because of marijuana’s federal status. Rescheduling may be a step forward, but it will not repair the harm or free people still living under the consequences of prohibition.”
In its filing, LPP says its perspective has been largely absent from the rescheduling debate. While much of the federal conversation has focused on medical use, business implications, and regulatory questions, LPP seeks to bring attention to the people who remain incarcerated for cannabis offenses, people under community supervision who risk technical violations for medical cannabis use, and people facing lifelong collateral consequences because of cannabis convictions.
The petition highlights the case of Michael Pelletier, an LPP constituent who was sentenced to life in prison for importing marijuana, later received a presidential commutation, and still faces barriers to accessing medical cannabis for chronic pain because of federal law and supervision restrictions.
LPP’s petition argues that continued federal criminalization has created lasting public health harms, especially in communities of color that have been disproportionately targeted by marijuana enforcement. The organization also notes that people impacted by the criminal legal system can still be denied meaningful access to medical cannabis, even when it could help treat chronic pain or other health conditions.
LPP is one of the only national organizations focused specifically on the intersection of cannabis reform and criminal justice. The organization has advocated for retroactive relief, resentencing, clemency, record clearance, and policy reforms aimed at ending the punishment of people for conduct that is now legal in much of the country.
