A post on the Facebook page of Great Smoky Cannabis Co., located on the Eastern Band of Cherokee’s western tribal lands, called the day “history in the making” with a video showing a line of people waiting outside the shop shortly before sales began at 10 a.m.

The outlet already started July 4 to sell in-store or drive-thru products for recreational use to adults enrolled in the tribe or any other federally recognized tribe. It had opened its doors in April initially for adult medical marijuana purchases.

Marijuana possession or use is otherwise illegal in North Carolina, but the tribe can pass rules related to cannabis as a sovereign nation. Of North Carolina and its surrounding states, only Virginia allows for the legal recreational use of marijuana statewide.

Tribal members voted in a referendum last September backing adult recreational use on their reservation and telling the tribal council to develop legislation to regulate such a market. Those details were hammered out by the council, approving language in June that effectively decriminalized cannabis on Eastern Band land called the Qualla Boundary.

The move was not without its opponents. Shortly before the referendum, Republican U.S. Rep. Chuck Edwards introduced legislation that would have removed federal highway funding from tribes and states that have legalized marijuana — a bill that ultimately died.

The Great Smoky Cannabis marijuana sales center, located near the Harrah’s Cherokee Casino Resort, is predicted to be more of a revenue-generator for the 14,000-member tribe as its customer base is expanded.

Chicago-based Verano plans to purchase The Cannabist Company’s entire Hampton Roads operation in a $90 million deal, according to a July 29 announcement.

If finalized, the deal would make Verano the sole company allowed to operate as a medical marijuana provider in the region, per Virginia law. The state allows only one medical marijuana operator and retailor to do business in each of its five health areas.

“Today’s agreement further diversifies Verano’s portfolio, which, since the company’s inception, has remained focused on expanding our business into limited-license markets to scale both our wholesale and retail operations,” said Verano Chairman and CEO George Archos in the announcement.

The deal includes one cultivation and production facility and six dispensaries in Norfolk, Virginia Beach, Portsmouth, Suffolk, Hampton and Williamsburg.

Archos said the deal also would leave the company well-positioned for if and when retail marijuana sales were approved in Virginia. In 2021, Virginia legalized possession of small amounts of cannabis but punted on establishing the regulatory framework for a retail market. Gov. Glenn Youngkin vetoed Democratic bills this year seeking to establish a retail market.

Under the agreement, Verano also would be able to sell throughout the state via home delivery and wholesale operations.

The $90 million agreement includes $20 million in cash, $40 million in Class A subordinate voting shares and a $30 million promissory note upon closing, according to the announcement.

The Cannabist Company will continue operating in the Richmond area, according to the announcement.

“As mentioned in previous announcements, we are continuing to optimize our footprint as we target building a better business, which includes deleveraging our balance sheet,” The Cannabist Company CEO David Hart said in the announcement.

Verano operates 13 production facilities in 13 states, and reported $221 million in revenue for the first quarter of 2024 ending March 31.

Trevor Metcalfe, 757-222-5345, trevor.metcalfe@pilotonline.com

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina senators are pushing to legalize medical marijuana again, but it’s unclear if the state House will approve it.

A Senate bill that was originally intended to add state regulations to hemp products experienced a major facelift on Wednesday when lawmakers added a provision legalizing medical marijuana. The amendment would apply to qualifying patients who have a “debilitating medical condition” such as cancer or epilepsy to be prescribed medical cannabis by a doctor.

It comes amid a pending decision by the U.S. Department of Justice to drop marijuana as a Schedule I drug to Schedule III and recognize its medical uses.

The original bill — which added several regulations for hemp products that are legal under federal law — was approved in a committee Wednesday morning before a Senate floor vote. Federal law allows for the sale of hemp products with concentrations of less than 0.3% of delta-9 THC, which is one of the main psychoactive substances found in traditional cannabis.

The hemp regulations bill was suddenly sent back to the Senate Judiciary Committee to add the 35-page medical marijuana provision Wednesday afternoon.

The new provision outlines requirements for physicians to prescribe medical marijuana, how people can get a medical marijuana identification card, what it takes to get a medical cannabis supplier license and restrictions on smoking in certain places.

Patients who qualify for using cannabis medically would need written certification from a physician under the bill.

The original hemp legislation that still remains prohibits sales of those goods to people under 21, requires testing before distribution and mandates obtaining licenses to sell legal hemp products such as THC gummies and cannabis-infused drinks.

Despite its renewed Senate momentum, House Republicans’ current stance on legalizing medical marijuana is murky. Just earlier this month, House Speaker Tim Moore indicated it didn’t have enough support.

“In no uncertain terms, there are not the votes in this caucus right now for this bill,” Moore said.

Senate Rules Chairman Bill Rabon, a vocal advocate for medical marijuana, told The Associated Press after committee that he reached out to Moore Wednesday morning but did not hear back. He also spoke with other House leaders and caucus members about the amendment, but had “no idea” whether they would consider approving it.

“I’m very optimistic, but I’m also very persistent,” the Brunswick County Republican said.

The Senate previously attempted to legalize medical marijuana last year under legislation led by Rabon, who said he smoked pot while undergoing chemotherapy for colon cancer. Lacking enough votes in the House after the Senate’s approval, the medical marijuana bill died last session.

Medical cannabis products are legal in 38 states and the District of Columbia, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

The amended bill will be voted on in the Senate on Thursday, then again on Monday, Rabon said.

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) — Maryland Gov. Wes Moore ordered more than 175,000 pardons for marijuana convictions on Monday, saying the “most sweeping state-level pardon in any state” will help reverse harms from the past caused by the war on drugs.

During a news conference, Moore said the executive order will affect “tens of thousands of Marylanders” convicted of misdemeanors. Some may have had more than one conviction pardoned through the process.

“We are taking actions that are intentional, that are sweeping and unapologetic, and this is the largest such action in our nation’s history,” Moore, a Democrat, said.

Though the pardons will not result in anyone being released from incarceration — and nor will they result in having past convictions automatically expunged from a person’s background check — advocates praised the move as a way of removing barriers to housing, employment, or educational opportunities based on convictions for conduct that is no longer illegal.

Heather Warnken, executive director of the University of Baltimore School of Law Center for Criminal Justice Reform. described the pardons as “a win for thousands of Marylanders getting a fresh start to pursue education, employment, and other forms of economic opportunity without the stain of a criminal conviction.”

Recreational cannabis was legalized in Maryland in 2023 after voters approved a constitutional amendment in 2022 with 67% of the vote. Maryland decriminalized possession of personal use amounts of cannabis on Jan. 1, 2023. Now, 24 states and the District of Columbia have legalized recreational cannabis.

“This is about changing how both government and society view those who have been walled off from opportunity because of broken and uneven policies,” Moore said.

Moore said “legalization does not turn back the clock on decades of harm that was caused by this war on drugs.”

He continued: “It doesn’t erase the fact that Black Marylanders were three times more likely to be arrested for cannabis than white Marylanders before legalization. It doesn’t erase the fact that having a conviction on your record means a harder time with everything, everything, from housing, to employment to education.”

Shiloh Jordan, who lost his job on his second day at work after a minor cannabis conviction appeared in a background check by his employer, attended the news conference. Moore noted that even though Jordan went back to college and now works for the Center for Urban Families in Baltimore, he still had the cannabis conviction on his record.

“Well today, that ends,” Moore said.

Jordan said he was thankful that his experience could be used as a testimony “and offer a lot of change for the people of Maryland.”

“It means a lot, because I know a lot of people that have been convicted for petty cannabis charges, and it really affected their whole way of life and their whole way of thinking,” Jordan said.

Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown, who attended the news conference, said the action was “long overdue.”

“As a nation, we have taken far too long to correct the injustices of a system that is supposed to be just for all.”

The attorney general also noted the magnitude of the governor’s actions, and he said it was about equity.

“It’s about racial justice. While the order applies to all who meet its criteria the impact is a triumphant victory for African Americans and other Marylanders of color who were disproportionately arrested, convicted and sentenced for actions yesterday that are lawful today.”

More than 150,000 misdemeanor convictions for simple possession of cannabis will be affected by the order, which also will cover more than 18,000 misdemeanor convictions for use or possession with intent to use drug paraphernalia, according to a summary by the governor’s office.

Now that Moore has ordered the pardons, the Maryland Judiciary will ensure each individual electronic docket is updated with an entry indicating the conviction has been pardoned by the governor, a process that should take about two weeks, the governor’s office said.

The governor’s order also directs the state corrections department to develop a process to indicate a pardon in an individual’s criminal record, a process expected to take about 10 months to complete.

The pardons absolve people from the guilt of a criminal offense, and individuals do not need to take any action to receive the pardon.

A pardon is different from an expungement. Although the Judiciary will make a note on the record that the offense has been pardoned, it will still show on the record. Expungement is a process that lets a person ask the court to remove certain kinds of court and police records from public view.

Unless something changes, the island’s only other cannabis dispensary will sell all its remaining supplies by September at the latest, and Martha’s Vineyard will run out of pot entirely, affecting more than 230 registered medical users and thousands more recreational ones.

The problem boils down to location. Although Massachusetts voters opted to legalize marijuana more than seven years ago, the state’s Cannabis Control Commission has taken the position that transporting pot across the ocean — whether by boat or plane — risks running afoul of federal laws. That’s despite a counterargument that there are routes to Martha’s Vineyard that remain entirely within state territorial waters.

The conundrum led Rose to file a lawsuit last month against the commission, which now says that finding a solution to the island’s pot problem has become a top priority. Three of the five commissioners visited Martha’s Vineyard on Thursday to hear directly from affected residents.

The tension between conflicting state and federal regulations has played out across the country as states have legalized pot. California law, for example, expressly allows cannabis to be transported to stores on Catalina Island, while Hawaii last year dealt with its own difficulties transporting medical marijuana between islands by amending a law to allow it.

Federal authorities have also been shifting their position. The Justice Department last month moved to reclassify marijuana as a less dangerous drug, though still not a legal one for recreational use.

For several years, sellers on Martha’s Vineyard and the nearby island of Nantucket thought they had a solution. They grew and tested their own pot, eliminating the need to import any from across the water.

But Fine Fettle, a Connecticut-based company that had been the sole commercial grower on Martha’s Vineyard and also runs the island’s other dispensary, told Rose last year that it planned to stop growing pot on Martha’s Vineyard and would close its store when its existing supplies ran out.

Benjamin Zachs, who runs Fine Fettle’s Massachusetts operations, said that when the company opened in Martha’s Vineyard, it knew it was illegal to transport marijuana across federal waterways.

“Candidly, when it started, we thought this was a good thing for business,” Zachs said. “A captured market.”

But over time, pot became cheaper with more varied options on the Massachusetts mainland, while the costs of employing testers on the island rose, making it uneconomic to continue such a niche operation, Zachs said. He added that many people bring their own supplies over on the ferry.

But for people living on the island, taking the ferry to buy pot can be expensive and time-consuming. There’s no dispensary in Woods Hole, where the ferry lands, so they either need to take an Uber from there or bring over a car, and space for vehicles is in hot demand over summer. That leaves medical users such as Sally Rizzo wondering how they will access marijuana. She finds the drug helps relieve her back problems and insomnia.

“The nice thing about getting it at a dispensary is that you can tell them specifically what you’re looking for, and know the milligrams, and know the potency, and what’s in it,” said Rizzo, who submitted an affidavit in support of Rose’s lawsuit.

Rose, 77, has lived on Martha’s Vineyard for more than 20 years and opened his Island Time store three years ago. For now, he’s keeping his core staff of five on the payroll. The dispensary’s green logo looks like a hippyish take on the famous Starbucks emblem, with a relaxed woman smelling a bloom under the words “Stop and smell the flower.” But Rose is anything but relaxed these days.

“I’m on the verge of going out of business,” he said. “While I acknowledge the efforts of the commission to address the issue, I really felt that the only way to get some immediate relief was to file a lawsuit. I was not going to sit on the sidelines. I had to do something.”

Rose was joined in his lawsuit by the Green Lady dispensary on Nantucket, which for now continues to have its own homegrown supply but also faces the same high costs of onsite testing.

In the lawsuit, Rose outlines how he told the commission in November that his business faced an existential crisis because Fine Fettle would no longer be growing pot. In March, he took a chance by buying some pot on the mainland and shipping it across on the ferry.

But the commission ordered Rose to stop selling the product he’d shipped over, putting it into an administrative hold. The commission eventually released the marijuana a few weeks later but told Rose he couldn’t ship over any more. In his suit, Rose complains about the commission’s “arbitrary, unreasonable, and inconsistent policy against transport over state territorial waters.”

Island Time is represented by Vicente, a firm that specializes in cannabis cases. It agreed to delay an emergency injunction against the commission until June 12 after the commission said it would enter into settlement discussions.

“We’re cautiously optimistic that we’ll be able to reach resolution, but if we can’t, we’ll be prepared to make the arguments in court,” said Vicente lawyer Adam Fine.

Until last week, the commission maintained that it wouldn’t comment on pending litigation, other than to say there was no special accommodation to allow pot to be transported from the mainland to the islands. But when commissioners traveled to Martha’s Vineyard, they assured residents they were all on the same page.

“Obviously, this is a super priority for us, because we don’t want to see the collapse of an industry on the islands,” said commissioner Kimberly Roy.

She said nobody could have foreseen that there was going to be such a supply chain issue and they wanted to get it resolved.

“It’s a funny juxtaposition,” she said. “The entire industry is federally illegal. But that’s evolving, too. We are just trying to stay responsive and nimble.”

Quentin Helgren was indicted in late May by a federal grand jury on charges of distributing more than 50 kilograms of marijuana. The charge carries a maximum of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine, records show.

A criminal complaint filed against Helgren says that his legal troubles started with an investigation into a person who is now cooperating with the federal government. The unnamed informant is described in court records as someone who was putting on weekly clandestine cannabis sales in Virginia — a state where marijuana possession is legal but the commercial market is not — and allegedly hired Helgren as a courier.

Federal authorities raided the cooperating witness’ warehouse last January and found hundreds of pounds of marijuana, according to a criminal complaint. That’s when he or she decided to turn in Helgren, describing in detail several times in 2023 when Helgren allegedly flew 85-120 pounds of marijuana to Virginia on his Cessna, and was paid $12,500 to $15,000 per trip.

The Drug Enforcement Administration found cellphone data and hotel records that further established Helgren was flying between Oakland and Virginia throughout 2023, according to the criminal complaint.

Helgren was arrested in May in California and released from jail while the case is pending. His arraignment has been set for June 12, court records show. Federal prosecutors have also filed a petition to seize his 1978 Cessna as part of the criminal prosecution under asset forfeiture laws.

For the first time, the number of Americans who use marijuana just about every day has surpassed the number who drink that often, a shift some 40 years in the making as recreational pot use became more mainstream and legal in nearly half of U.S. states.

In 2022, an estimated 17.7 million people reported using marijuana daily or near-daily compared to 14.7 million daily or near-daily drinkers, according an analysis of national survey data. In 1992, when daily pot use hit a low point, less than 1 million people said they used marijuana nearly every day.

Alcohol is still more widely used, but 2022 was the first time this intensive level of marijuana use overtook daily and near-daily drinking, said the study’s author, Jonathan Caulkins, a cannabis policy researcher at Carnegie Mellon University.

“A good 40% of current cannabis users are using it daily or near daily, a pattern that is more associated with tobacco use than typical alcohol use,” Caulkins said.

The research, based on data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, was published Wednesday in the journal Addiction. The survey is a highly regarded source of self-reported estimates of tobacco, alcohol and drug use in the United States.

From 1992 to 2022, the per capita rate of reporting daily or near-daily marijuana use increased 15-fold. Caulkins acknowledged in the study that people may be more willing to report marijuana use as public acceptance grows, which could boost the increase.

Most states now allow medical or recreational marijuana, though it remains illegal at the federal level. In November, Florida voters will decide on a constitutional amendment allowing recreational cannabis, and the federal government is moving to reclassify marijuana as a less dangerous drug.

Research shows that high-frequency users are more likely to become addicted to marijuana, said Dr. David A. Gorelick, a psychiatry professor at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, who was not involved in the study.

The number of daily users suggests that more people are at risk for developing problematic cannabis use or addiction, Gorelick said.

“High frequency use also increases the risk of developing cannabis-associated psychosis,” a severe condition where a person loses touch with reality, he said.

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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department on Thursday formally moved to reclassify marijuana as a less dangerous drug, a historic shift in generations of U.S. drug policy.

A proposed rule sent to the federal register recognizes the medical uses of cannabis and acknowledges it has less potential for abuse than some of the nation’s most dangerous drugs. The plan approved by Attorney General Merrick Garland would not legalize marijuana outright for recreational use.

The Drug Enforcement Administration will next take public comment on the proposal in a potentially lengthy process. If approved, the rule would move marijuana away from its current classification as a Schedule I drug, alongside heroin and LSD. Pot would instead be a Schedule III substance, alongside ketamine and some anabolic steroids.

The move comes after a recommendation from the federal Health and Human Services Department, which launched a review of the drug’s status at the urging of President Joe Biden in 2022.

Biden also has moved to pardon thousands of people convicted federally of simple possession of marijuana and has called on governors and local leaders to take similar steps to erase convictions.

“This is monumental,” Biden said in a video statement, calling it an important move toward reversing longstanding inequities. “Far too many lives have been upended because of a failed approach to marijuana, and I’m committed to righting those wrongs. You have my word on it.”

The election year announcement could help Biden, a Democrat, boost flagging support, particularly among younger voters.

The notice kicks off a 60-day comment period followed by a possible review from an administrative judge, which could be a drawn-out process.

Biden and a growing number of lawmakers from both major political parties have been pushing for the DEA decision as marijuana has become increasingly decriminalized and accepted, particularly by younger people. Some argue that rescheduling doesn’t go far enough and marijuana should instead be treated the way alcohol is.

Democratic Senate Majority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York applauded the change and called for additional steps toward legalization.

The U.S. Cannabis Council, a trade group, said the switch would “signal a tectonic shift away from the failed policies of the last 50 years.”

The Justice Department said that available data reviewed by HHS shows that while marijuana “is associated with a high prevalence of abuse,” that potential is more in line with other Schedule III substances, according to the proposed rule.

The HHS recommendations are binding until the draft rule is submitted, and Garland agreed with it for the purposes of starting the process.

Still, the DEA has not yet formed its own determination as to where marijuana should be scheduled, and it expects to learn more during the rulemaking process, the document states.

Some critics argue the DEA shouldn’t change course on marijuana, saying rescheduling isn’t necessary and could lead to harmful side effects.

Dr. Kevin Sabet, a former White House drug policy adviser now with the group Smart Approaches to Marijuana, said there isn’t enough data to support moving pot to Schedule III. “As we’ve maintained throughout this process, it’s become undeniable that politics, not science, is driving this decision and has been since the very beginning,” Sabet said.

The immediate effect of rescheduling on the nation’s criminal justice system is expected to be muted. Federal prosecutions for simple possession have been fairly rare in recent years.

Schedule III drugs are still controlled substances and subject to rules and regulations, and people who traffic in them without permission could still face federal criminal prosecution.

Federal drug policy has lagged behind many states in recent years, with 38 states having already legalized medical marijuana and 24 legalizing its recreational use. That’s helped fuel fast growth in the marijuana industry, with an estimated worth of nearly $30 billion.

Easing federal regulations could reduce the tax burden that can be 70% or more for marijuana businesses, according to industry groups. It also could make it easier to research marijuana, since it’s very difficult to conduct authorized clinical studies on Schedule I substances.

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Associated Press writers Zeke Miller in Washington and Joshua Goodman in Miami contributed to this report.

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Follow the AP’s coverage of marijuana at https://apnews.com/hub/marijuana.

Facing softening support from a left-leaning voting group that will be crucial to his reelection hopes in November, Biden has made a number of election year moves intended to appeal in particular to younger voters. His move toward reclassifying marijuana as a less dangerous drug is just the latest, coming weeks after he canceled student loans for another 206,000 borrowers. He has also made abortion rights central to his case for reelection.

The push to highlight issues that resonate with younger voters comes as the Democratic president fights to hold together the coalition that sent him to the White House in 2020.

Biden, the oldest president in U.S. history at 81, is battling a perception among voters that he’s lost a step as he’s aged. Discontent with his handling of Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza has exploded into unrest on college campuses. While inflation has ebbed from its peak and the job market remains strong, polls show many Americans still hold negative views of Biden’s handling of the economy.

A proposal by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration would recognize the medical uses of cannabis and acknowledge it has less potential for abuse than some of the nation’s most dangerous drugs. However, it would not legalize marijuana outright for recreational use.

Biden called for a review of federal marijuana law in October 2022 and moved to pardon thousands of Americans convicted federally of simple possession of the drug. He has also called on governors and local leaders to take similar steps to erase marijuana convictions.

“The American people have made clear in state after state that cannabis legalization is inevitable,” Rep. Earl Blumenauer, an Oregon Democrat and an early proponent of easing marijuana laws, said in a statement. “The Biden-Harris administration is listening.”

Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris both touted their support for marijuana law reform to mark the 4/20 cannabis holiday at 4:20 p.m. Saturday.

The comments are the latest sign the Biden administration plans to continue to focus on the popular issue ahead of the November election.

“Sending people to prison just for possessing marijuana has upended too many lives and incarcerated people for conduct that many states no longer prohibit,” Biden posted on the social media platform X. “It’s time that we right these wrongs.”

The politics of marijuana are favorable for the president.

Biden has issued pardons to thousands of people for federal marijuana possession and commuted long sentences handed down for nonviolent drug offenses. In 2022, he urged governors to pardon state offenses.

While young voters lean left, they are also less likely to vote. Biden can’t afford for a reliable group of supporters to stay home or vote for a third-party candidate like independent Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who is aggressively courting young voters, or the Green Party’s Jill Stein, who is leaning into her opposition to Israel’s war in Gaza.

The last two elections were decided by fewer than 100,000 votes in three states.

Despite growing public acceptance, Biden’s move has prominent detractors, including several former top DEA officials. Opponents say the potency of today’s marijuana could lead to harmful side effects, including psychosis and anxiety.

“This is a political act — it’s not following the science,” said former DEA Administrator Tim Shea. “It’s politics in election year. It’s like forgiving student loans. It’s aimed at a select group of people and the impact is going to be bad.”

“Law enforcement can’t believe it’s happening,” Shea added.

During the crack epidemic of the 1980s and ’90s, then-Sen. Biden was a prominent voice in the war on drugs.

Ethan Nadelmann, who has been advocating for drug legalization for decades, said Biden probably senses now that a more lenient stance on pot could help rally younger voters and progressive members of his party.

“It will end the hypocrisy,” Nadelmann said.

Former President Donald Trump’s views on marijuana are unclear. But as a resident of Florida he’ll have the chance to vote on a legalization initiative on the ballot in November. In an interview last year with Newsmax, the presumptive GOP presidential nominee said pot causes “significant damage” even as he acknowledged that legalizing cannabis is a “pretty popular thing” among voters.

Federal drug policy has lagged behind much of the country, with 38 states having already legalized medical marijuana in addition to 24 that have approved its recreational use. That’s helped fuel fast growth in the U.S. marijuana industry, with sales estimated to be worth $25 billion a year.

Easing federal regulations could reduce the tax burden that can be 70% or more by allowing businesses to take tax deductions and seek loans, according to industry groups. It could also make it easier forscientists to research marijuana.

Associated Press writers Joshua Goodman in Miami and Jim Mustian in New Orleans contributed.

Follow the AP’s coverage of the 2024 election at https://apnews.com/hub/election-2024.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration is moving toward reclassifying marijuana as a less dangerous drug. The Justice Department proposal would recognize the medical uses of cannabis, but wouldn’t legalize it for recreational use.

The proposal would move marijuana from the “Schedule I” group to the less tightly regulated “Schedule III.”

So what does that mean, and what are the implications?

WHAT HAS ACTUALLY CHANGED? WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?

Technically, nothing yet. The proposal must be reviewed by the White House Office of Management and Budget, and then undergo a public-comment period and review from an administrative judge, a potentially lengthy process.

Still, the switch is considered “paradigm-shifting, and it’s very exciting,” Vince Sliwoski, a Portland, Oregon-based cannabis and psychedelics attorney who runs well-known legal blogs on those topics, told The Associated Press when the federal Health and Human Services Department recommended the change.

“I can’t emphasize enough how big of news it is,” he said.

It came after President Joe Biden asked both HHS and the attorney general, who oversees the DEA, last year to review how marijuana was classified. Schedule I put it on par, legally, with heroin, LSD, quaaludes and ecstasy, among others.

Biden, a Democrat, supports legalizing medical marijuana for use “where appropriate, consistent with medical and scientific evidence,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Thursday. “That is why it is important for this independent review to go through.”

IF MARIJUANA GETS RECLASSIFIED, WOULD IT LEGALIZE RECREATIONAL CANNABIS NATIONWIDE?

No. Schedule III drugs — which include ketamine, anabolic steroids and some acetaminophen-codeine combinations — are still controlled substances.

They’re subject to various rules that allow for some medical uses, and for federal criminal prosecution of anyone who traffics in the drugs without permission.

No changes are expected to the medical marijuana programs now licensed in 38 states or the legal recreational cannabis markets in 23 states, but it’s unlikely they would meet the federal production, record-keeping, prescribing and other requirements for Schedule III drugs.

There haven’t been many federal prosecutions for simply possessing marijuana in recent years, even under marijuana’s current Schedule I status, but the reclassification wouldn’t have an immediate impact on people already in the criminal justice system.

“Put simple, this move from Schedule I to Schedule III is not getting people out of jail,” said David Culver, senior vice president of public affairs at the U.S. Cannabis Council.

But rescheduling in itself would have some impact, particularly on research and marijuana business taxes.

WHAT WOULD THIS MEAN FOR RESEARCH?

Because marijuana is on Schedule I, it’s been very difficult to conduct authorized clinical studies that involve administering the drug. That has created something of a Catch-22: calls for more research, but barriers to doing it. (Scientists sometimes rely instead on people’s own reports of their marijuana use.)

Schedule III drugs are easier to study, though the reclassification wouldn’t immediately reverse all barriers to study.

“It’s going to be really confusing for a long time,” said Ziva Cooper, director of the University of California, Los Angeles Center for Cannabis and Cannabinoids. “When the dust has settled, I don’t know how many years from now, research will be easier.”

Among the unknowns: whether researchers will be able to study marijuana from state-licensed dispensaries and how the federal Food and Drug Administration might oversee that.

Some researchers are optimistic.

“Reducing the schedule to schedule 3 will open up the door for us to be able to conduct research with human subjects with cannabis,” said Susan Ferguson, director of University of Washington’s Addictions, Drug & Alcohol Institute in Seattle.

WHAT ABOUT TAXES (AND BANKING)?

Under the federal tax code, businesses involved in “trafficking” in marijuana or any other Schedule I or II drug can’t deduct rent, payroll or various other expenses that other businesses can write off. (Yes, at least some cannabis businesses, particularly state-licensed ones, do pay taxes to the federal government, despite its prohibition on marijuana.) Industry groups say the tax rate often ends up at 70% or more.

The deduction rule doesn’t apply to Schedule III drugs, so the proposed change would cut cannabis companies’ taxes substantially.

They say it would treat them like other industries and help them compete against illegal competitors that are frustrating licensees and officials in places such as New York.

“You’re going to make these state-legal programs stronger,” says Adam Goers, of The Cannabist Company, formerly Columbia Care. He co-chairs a coalition of corporate and other players that’s pushing for rescheduling.

It could also mean more cannabis promotion and advertising if those costs could be deducted, according to Beau Kilmer, co-director of the RAND Drug Policy Center.

Rescheduling wouldn’t directly affect another marijuana business problem: difficulty accessing banks, particularly for loans, because the federally regulated institutions are wary of the drug’s legal status. The industry has been looking instead to a measure called the SAFE Banking Act. It has repeatedly passed the House but stalled in the Senate.

ARE THERE CRITICS? WHAT DO THEY SAY?

Indeed, there are, including the national anti-legalization group Smart Approaches to Marijuana. President Kevin Sabet, a former Obama administration drug policy official, said the HHS recommendation “flies in the face of science, reeks of politics” and gives a regrettable nod to an industry “desperately looking for legitimacy.”

Some legalization advocates say rescheduling weed is too incremental. They want to keep the focus on removing it completely from the controlled substances list, which doesn’t include such items as alcohol or tobacco (they’re regulated, but that’s not the same).

Paul Armentano, the deputy director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, said that simply reclassifying marijuana would be “perpetuating the existing divide between state and federal marijuana policies.” Kaliko Castille, a past president of the Minority Cannabis Business Association, said rescheduling just “re-brands prohibition,” rather than giving an all-clear to state licensees and putting a definitive close to decades of arrests that disproportionately pulled in people of color.

“Schedule III is going to leave it in this kind of amorphous, mucky middle where people are not going to understand the danger of it still being federally illegal,” he said.

This story has been corrected to show that Kaliko Castille is a past president, not president, of the Minority Cannabis Business Association and that Columbia Care is now The Cannabist Company.

Peltz reported from New York. Associated Press writer Colleen Long in Washington contributed to this report.