This month President Biden announced the Department of Justice is planning an historic shift in the federal approach to marijuana, reclassifying it from what's known as a Schedule 1 drug to Schedule 3.

This would make federal treatment of marijuana far less

restrictive and consider it less dangerous, putting it in the same category as

Tylenol with codeine and ketamine. It would classify it as a drug that has potential for abuse

while still being acknowledged for its medicinal benefits. The president

talked about the decision in a video posted on X. Far too many lives have been

upended because a failed approach to

marijuana and I'm committed to writing those wrongs. You have my word on it.

Joining us now is Natalie Fertig, she's Federal Cannabis Policy reporter for Politico.

Natalie, thanks for being here.

Thanks for having me.

So this is the next step in a reclassification process

that the president began back in 2022, right?

So walk us through the timeline here.

Where in that process are we now?

So we just began a 60-day comment period

where the DOJ said we've now made our formal decision. We've issued a draft rule that we're going to reschedule

cannabis.

So 60 days started last week and now this could end five months from now or this could end six or seven years from now depending

on if there's legal challenges in that process.

Okay, so still a lot we don't yet know, right?

We should know, we have seen a real sea change when it comes to cannabis legalization

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