PREPARE Act of 2022
Key claim: The bill would have the Justice Department create a commission to study how the federal government could regulate adult-use cannabis if prohibition ended.
Abstract
(S5166 · 117th Congress) Preparing Regulators Effectively for a Post-prohibition Adult-use Regulated Environment Act of 2022 or the PREPARE Act of 2022 This bill directs the Department of Justice to establish the Commission on the Federal Regulation of Cannabis to study a plausible and prompt pathway to cannabis regulation. Latest action (2022-12-01): Read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary.
Why this matters
The PREPARE Act would not change cannabis’s Schedule I status but would set up a DOJ commission to pre-plan how federal regulation could work if prohibition were lifted. It represents a procedural, study-oriented approach to federal cannabis policy, contrasting with concurrent descheduling bills that would directly remove cannabis from the CSA.