PlainBillCongress, translated.Legislation. Context. Public interest.Congressional Research Service
Version 00 · Introduced in Senate · Sep 5, 2017
Compassionate Access, Research Expansion, and Respect States Act of 2017 or the CARERS Act of 2017
This bill amends the Controlled Substances Act to provide that the Act's regulatory controls and administrative, civil, and criminal penalties do not apply to a person who produces, possesses, distributes, dispenses, administers, tests, recommends, or delivers medical marijuana in compliance with state law.
The bill also:
Showing the opening paragraphs of the official summary.
excludes "cannabidiol" (CBD) from the definition of "marijuana";
limits the concentration of delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) in CBD to 0.3 percent on a dry weight basis; and
deems marijuana grown or processed to make CBD, in accordance with state law, to comply with the THC concentration limit unless the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) determines state law to be unreasonable.
The bill directs the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to terminate the Public Health Service's interdisciplinary review process that is used to evaluate applications for medical marijuana research. The DEA must license manufacturers and distributors of marijuana for medical research; HHS must register practitioners to conduct research; and the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) must authorize VA health care providers to provide recommendations and opinions to veterans regarding participation in their states' marijuana programs.
People & committees
Sen. Booker, Cory A. [D-NJ] · D–NJ
Legislative record
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Read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary.
Introduced in Senate
Primary sources
Text links open the official source. We currently store references to these documents.
Source last updated: Aug 10, 2026. Consult Congress.gov for the current record.
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