President Joe Biden’s Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) is reportedly moving to reclassify marijuana as a less dangerous drug ahead of the 2024 presidential election.
Attorney General Merrick Garland made the recommendation to loosen restrictions on the drug, The Washington Post reported.
The reported change would downgrade marijuana from being a Schedule I drug alongside drugs like heroin and cocaine to a Schedule III substance, meaning it could be obtained with a prescription.
“Today, the Attorney General circulated a proposal to reclassify marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule III,” said Justice Department director of public affairs Xochitl Hinojosa. “Once published by the Federal Register, it will initiate a formal rulemaking process as prescribed by Congress in the Controlled Substances Act.”
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The proposal would not legalize marijuana outright for recreational use, the Associated Press reported.
The White House Office of Management has to review and sign off on the plan before the DEA then opens it up to public comment.
If the public comment period goes smoothly enough then the proposal will be reviewed by an administrative judge before the agency finalizes the rule, the report said.
“Criminal records for marijuana use and possession have imposed needless barriers to employment, housing, and educational opportunities,” Biden said in December. “Too many lives have been upended because of our failed approach to marijuana. It’s time that we right these wrongs.”
The report said that Biden was potentially pursuing the reclassification of marijuana to appeal to certain demographics that he is struggling to gain support from ahead of the election.
The announcement was met with mixed reactions across the country at the federal, state, and local levels.
In Alabama, Montgomery County Sheriff Derrick Cunningham said that the rule change was not “opening up the door for it.”
“If you ask me, it is a gateway drug,” the sheriff said. “That’s how we start off with marijuana and then we move up to something else.”