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.”
“Across the country, state legislatures introduced more than a dozen bills aimed at righting the wrongs of cannabis criminalization. But most of them died quietly,” the organization says. “This is the untold story of cannabis reform in 2025: legalization is advancing, but justice is still being denied. People are profiting off an industry that others are still being punished for—and many statehouses are failing to act.”
In Florida, Georgia, Alaska and Missouri, for example, bills to seal past criminal cannabis records and expedite the release of people incarcerated on marijuana offenses fell short, says the review by LPP. Similarly, longtime efforts to expunge cannabis convictions in Massachusetts and New York also failed to move forward.
Virginia lawmakers, meanwhile, passed a resentencing bill that would have lightened marijuana penalties retroactively, but Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R), who’s scuttled numerous drug reform bills during his time in office, ultimately vetoed the measure.
“While public support for expungement and release is stronger than ever, political action has largely stalled,” LPP’s director of policy, Adrian Rocha, said in a statement to Marijuana Moment. “We’ve seen dozens of bills introduced this year that would have provided meaningful relief, but many were quietly buried without so much as a hearing.”
“We can’t celebrate a legal cannabis industry while thousands still live with the weight of criminal records, or remain behind bars, for doing something that is now perfectly legal,” he added. “If lawmakers are serious about equity, it’s time to stop delaying and start delivering on the promises of cannabis justice.”
But it’s not all bad news, Rocha said, pointing to examples of “bright spots that prove what’s possible when advocates, lawmakers, and communities come together.”
“In Maryland and Hawai’i,” for example, he said, “we witnessed landmark victories that expand access to record relief and demonstrate how cannabis justice can be implemented effectively.”
In Maryland, 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.
“I want to be very clear: This is not about letting criminals or repeat offenders off the hook. It’s about common sense,” Moore said at the time. “The people who will be helped out by this reform are our neighbors and our parents, even people in our congregation. They’re people who just want to move forward but keep hitting a wall made of paperwork.”
Heather Warnken, executive director of the University of Baltimore School of Law’s Center for Criminal Justice Reform, said that people in Maryland had been “living with the unconscionable reality that any probation violation, from a missed appointment to even decades-old possession of small amounts of now legal cannabis, categorically barred them from ever expunging their record.”
“The Expungement Reform Act has addressed this and more, removing barriers to opportunity for thousands held back by their past record,” she continued. “Like Gov. Moore’s historic mass pardon, this victory is the product of true partnership, and an incredible step forward for our state.”
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. This month, he also issued another mass pardon for people with past marijuana possession convictions, granting clemency to about 7,000 more people on the holiday Juneteenth that commemorates the end of slavery.
In Hawaii this session, meanwhile, lawmakers enacted a new law to help speed the expungement process for people hoping to clear their records of past marijuana-related offenses. The law aims to expedite expungements happening through a pilot program that became law last year.
“I believe Hawai’i has an obligation to ensure that individuals who continue to suffer the consequences of an outdated law have an opportunity to finally move on with their lives,” Rep. David Tarnas (D), the bill’s sponsor, said in a comment to Marijuana Moment. “This bill will eliminate the need for extensive manual searches and ensure that more people receive the relief they deserve without unnecessary delays.”
“It’s time to stop punishing people for conduct that’s no longer considered a crime,” he said, “and start restoring their dignity and providing them with opportunities.”
In Maine and Minnesota, LPP noted, criminal justice reform bills are “still in play—but the path to passage remains uncertain.”
Advocates also pointed to Texas, where lawmakers both passed a measure to expand medical marijuana as well as a widespread ban on hemp products containing any detectable amount of THC.
It remains to be seen whether Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) will sign the hemp ban legislation.
“The scales of justice in Texas are at a tipping point, but which direction they will tip is still up in the air,” said Jeannette McKenzie, board member and director of the Texas Cannabis Collective. “It’s hard to celebrate expanded medical access when we’re simultaneously expanding criminalization for the same plant.”
“People want and deserve the freedom to use and enjoy cannabis on their own terms free from tyrannical government prosecution,” she added.
Last Prisoner Project has long pushed for legalization of cannabis to include measures meant to address past drug war harms. In May, the group organized a coalition of marijuana reform advocates that held an event outside the White House to urge President Donald Trump to free those still incarcerated over cannabis.
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. It featured multiple speakers who shared stories about their personal experiences with the criminal justice system and their advocacy work, making the case to the administration that now is the time to put a definitive end to marijuana criminalization.
At the federal level, Trump is facing pressure on multiple fronts to fulfill campaign pledges and expand on cannabis clemency that has been achieved under his first time, as well as under the Biden administration. And in many cases, it’s those who’ve been directly impacted by criminalization who are leading the charge.
In April, for example, an activist who received a pardon for a marijuana-related conviction during Trump’s first term paid a visit to the White House, discussing future clemency options with the recently appointed “pardon 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.
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