LEGALIZE MARIJUANA FEDERALLY

This isn't something a president can do by executive order. Congress has to amend the Controlled Substances Act and take marijuana off the federal schedules completely — not move it to Schedule III, which leaves it federally controlled and fixes neither the banking problem nor anyone's criminal record. DEA can technically deschedule on its own under 21 USC 811, but that runs through HHS findings, notice and comment, hearings and court challenges. Changing the statute is the direct route. DOJ and DEA update the regulations afterward.

Expungement needs its own bill. Descheduling doesn't clear a single record by itself. Congress has to say which offences qualify, whether records get sealed or destroyed, and whether agencies can still look at them. Anyone sitting in federal prison solely for an eligible offence should have the sentence vacated and walk. DOJ and the US Attorneys identify the cases, federal courts vacate, Bureau of Prisons handles release.

Banking needs a safe harbour written into law. A bank, credit union, insurer or payment processor shouldn't be breaking federal law just by opening an account for a licensed cannabis business. It has to cover anti-money-laundering liability specifically — rescheduling wouldn't touch that. Treasury and FinCEN update the guidance, the banking regulators implement it.

Regulate it like alcohol. Federal minimum standards for production, testing, labelling, potency, packaging, advertising and tax. States still decide whether it's legal at all, who gets licensed, and what they tax. Federal legalisation doesn't force any state to legalise.

Interstate commerce has to be authorised explicitly. Licensed growers in one legal state selling to licensed distributors in another, with tracking, testing standards, transport rules and destination-state licensing. Without it every legal state builds its own duplicate industry inside its borders.

And the collateral penalties have to end. Using cannabis legally under state law shouldn't cost someone their immigration status, their security clearance, their public housing, their VA benefits or their right to buy a gun. The gun piece needs 18 USC 922(g)(3) amended specifically — descheduling doesn't reach it. Then DHS, HUD, VA, ODNI and the agencies update their rules, ATF rewrites Form 4473, and FBI updates NICS.