Why the Biden administration plan to reclassify marijuana matters

[LetMyPeopleVote]

For decades, the United States’ “war on drugs” moved in one punitive direction. As the Biden administration’s dramatic moves help prove, it’s a new day.

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https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/biden-administration-plan-reclassify-marijuana-matters-rcna150576

It became a point of real pride for the White House — as evidenced by Biden bragging about the policy in his State of the Union address. What’s more, in the same remarks, the president said he was “directing my cabinet to review the federal classification of marijuana.”

Evidently, Biden meant it. NBC News reported this week:

The Biden administration will take a historic step toward easing federal restrictions on cannabis, with plans to announce an interim rule soon reclassifying the drug for the first time since the Controlled Substances Act was enacted more than 50 years ago, four sources with knowledge of the decision said.

It was Biden’s Department of Health and Human Services that concluded, after a year and a half of bureaucratic review, that marijuana should be reclassified from the strictest Schedule I, covering drugs such as heroin and methamphetamines, to Schedule III, which includes things like Tylenol with codeine and testosterone.

Now, the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Justice Department are endorsing the move, marking the first time that federal officials have acknowledged potential medical benefits to marijuana and opening the door to therapeutic research.

It is, as an Associated Press report noted, the biggest policy change from federal officials on the issue “in more than 50 years.”.....

It’s extraordinary to see how much the landscape has changed in recent years. A decade ago, the total number of states allowing recreational marijuana use was zero, and at the national level, elected officials wanted nothing to do with reform proposals.

Now, 24 states have legalized cannabis for adult use; 37 states and Washington, D.C., have legalized medical marijuana; and the Biden administration is moving forward with reclassification plans with minimal pushback from its GOP detractors.

For decades, the United States’ “war on drugs” only moved in one punitive direction. As the latest developments help prove, it’s a new day.