Of Fraud and Weed – Update for August 22, 2025

We post news and comment on federal criminal justice issues, focused primarily on trial and post-conviction matters, legislative initiatives, and sentencing issues.

Summer is ending with back-to-school, football, and cooler days upon us. In commemoration of a short summer, I am condensing a surprising amount of news from last week into ‘shorts’.

LEGISLATIVE ‘SHORTS’

Easing Up on Fraud Guidelines? Law360 reported last week on the U.S. Sentencing Commission interest in modifying the 2B1.1 theft/fraud guidelines.

The USSC said it will consider Guideline reforms to the outsized role of loss calculation in driving the Guidelines advisory sentencing range, one of several priorities the agency has marked for closer examination.

The examination includes a reassessment of the role of actual loss, intended loss and gain in guidelines calculation, and whether the fraud guidelines as they stand “appropriately reflect the culpability of a defendant and harm to victims.”

Also on the table are whether to adjust the applicable loss guidelines for inflation and adjust for the role the defendant played in the crime, including minor roles and those who abuse positions of trust.

Law360, Sentencing Commission Plans To Reassess Fraud Guidelines(August 7, 2025)

More on Rescheduling Marijuana: After telling donors earlier this month that he was considering rescheduling marijuana, President Trump said at an August 11th press conference, “We’re looking at reclassification, and we’ll make a determination over, I’d say, the next few weeks,” The Hill reported.

The Biden administration had sought to reschedule cannabis from Schedule I to the lesser Schedule III but left the process unfinished. The move would bring negligible changes in criminal justice reform but may pave the way for legislative or guidelines reform.

The Hill reported that Adam Smith, executive director of the Marijuana Policy Project, said the Biden rescheduling effort stalled due to a resistant DEA.

The Dept of Health and Human Services recommended in 2023 that marijuana be reclassified as a Schedule III drug, one that has a “moderate to low potential for physical and psychological dependence.”

The Hill, Trump signals push to finish Biden’s marijuana reform (August 15, 2025)

The Hill, Trump admin may reclassify marijuana: Would that make it legal in the US? (August 12, 2025)

~ Thomas L. Root