On June 23, 2011, Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) and Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) introduced H.R. 2306, the Ending Federal Marijuana Prohibition Act of 2011, the first bill in Congress written to take marijuana out of the federal Controlled Substances Act and let states set their own marijuana policy. It never got a hearing, but it set the template for every federal legalization bill since, from the 2013 and 2015 Polis-Blumenauer bills to the MORE Act, which passed the House twice.
The Weed Street Journal covered this bill and the ones around it as they happened. This rewrite pulls those reports into one history of federal marijuana legalization bills, checked against the Congress.gov record.
What Happened
Frank and Paul, a liberal Democrat and a libertarian Republican who was then running for president, filed H.R. 2306 on Thursday, June 23, 2011, and announced it at a press call that afternoon. The original cosponsors were Reps. John Conyers (D-Mich.), Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.), Jared Polis (D-Colo.) and Barbara Lee (D-Calif.). By the end of the 112th Congress the bill had 20 cosponsors.
The bill would have removed marijuana from the federal schedules and repealed the marijuana-specific penalties in the Controlled Substances Act. Federal enforcement would have been limited to smuggling across borders or into states that kept marijuana illegal, according to the Christian Science Monitor. Its backers stressed that it did not legalize marijuana anywhere on its own. It left that choice to each state, which CBS News reported as an effort to resolve conflicts between state and federal law.
“Criminally prosecuting adults for making the choice to smoke marijuana is a waste of law enforcement resources,” Frank said. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas) answered that his committee would not consider the bill, arguing that “decriminalizing marijuana will only lead to millions more Americans becoming addicted to drugs” and that letting states set their own policy “flies in the face of Supreme Court precedent.”
Background
The bill came a few days after the 40th anniversary of President Nixon’s June 1971 “war on drugs” declaration and less than a year after California voters rejected Proposition 19, a legalization measure that drew 46.5% of the vote. Sixteen states and Washington, D.C. had medical marijuana laws, and federal raids on dispensaries in those states were a constant complaint.
A month earlier, on May 25, 2011, the same group of lawmakers had filed three narrower bills aimed at medical marijuana: Frank’s States’ Medical Marijuana Patient Protection Act (H.R. 1983), Polis’s Small Business Banking Improvement Act (H.R. 1984), which sought bank access for state-legal dispensaries, and Rep. Pete Stark’s Small Business Tax Equity Act (H.R. 1985), which targeted the tax rule that bars marijuana businesses from deducting ordinary expenses. All three were referred to committee and went no further.
What Happened Next
H.R. 2306 was referred to the Judiciary and Energy and Commerce committees and, by August 2011, to the Judiciary subcommittee on crime. Smith never scheduled a hearing, and the bill died when the 112th Congress ended.
The bills kept coming, each one shaped by state votes:
- November 27, 2012: Three weeks after Colorado and Washington voters legalized adult use, Rep. Diana DeGette (D-Colo.) introduced the Respect States’ and Citizens’ Rights Act (H.R. 6606), which would have exempted people acting under state marijuana laws from the federal act. It had 12 cosponsors and died with the session.
- February 5, 2013: Polis reintroduced the Ending Federal Marijuana Prohibition Act as H.R. 499 (18 cosponsors), paired with Rep. Earl Blumenauer’s (D-Ore.) Marijuana Tax Equity Act (H.R. 501), a federal excise tax plan. Neither got a vote.
- February 20, 2015: Polis filed the Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol Act (H.R. 1013), which would have moved oversight from the DEA to the agency that regulates alcohol, and Blumenauer filed the Marijuana Tax Revenue Act (H.R. 1014). Both stalled in the Republican-controlled House.
- December 4, 2020: The House passed the MORE Act (H.R. 3884), sponsored by Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.), 228 to 164, the first time either chamber voted to end federal prohibition. The Senate never took it up.
- April 1, 2022: The House passed the MORE Act again (H.R. 3617), 220 to 204, per the House Clerk roll call. It again died in the Senate.
The banking idea from 2011 had a longer run. The SAFE Banking Act passed the House 321 to 103 in September 2019 and 321 to 101 in April 2021. On September 27, 2023, the Senate Banking Committee approved the SAFER Banking Act (S. 2860) 14 to 9, the first Senate committee vote on a cannabis banking bill. It never reached the floor.
Where It Stands in 2026
No bill ending federal marijuana prohibition has become law. Nadler reintroduced the MORE Act as H.R. 5068 in August 2025, and a cannabis banking bill was reintroduced in both chambers in June 2026. Both remain at the introduction stage.
The change that did happen came through the executive branch, not Congress. An April 2026 DOJ/DEA final order moved FDA-approved marijuana products and marijuana held under a state medical marijuana license to Schedule III. Adult-use and unlicensed marijuana remain in Schedule I. A DEA hearing on moving all marijuana to Schedule III ran from June 29 to July 15, 2026, and was stayed on September 29, 2026, with no recommended decision as of mid-October. Challenges to the April order are pending in the D.C. Circuit. Our federal marijuana laws guide tracks the details, and our state-by-state cannabis laws page shows what is legal where you live.
Fifteen years on, the Frank-Paul approach, letting each state decide, is roughly how the country works in practice, even though federal law still says otherwise. More of this history lives in our marijuana history section and the cannabis news archive.
Federal Marijuana Legalization Bill FAQ
What was the first bill to end federal marijuana prohibition?
H.R. 2306, the Ending Federal Marijuana Prohibition Act of 2011, introduced June 23, 2011, by Reps. Barney Frank and Ron Paul. It would have removed marijuana from the Controlled Substances Act and left regulation to the states.
Why did the Frank-Paul bill fail?
House Judiciary Chairman Lamar Smith refused to consider it. It never received a hearing or a vote and expired at the end of the 112th Congress.
Has Congress ever passed a federal legalization bill?
The House passed the MORE Act in December 2020 (228-164) and April 2022 (220-204). The Senate never voted on either version, so neither became law.
Is marijuana federally legal in 2026?
No. Since April 2026, state-licensed medical marijuana and FDA-approved products are in Schedule III, but adult-use marijuana remains a Schedule I controlled substance under federal law.
Originally reported by The Weed Street Journal; rewritten and updated in October 2026 with what happened next.