ANCHOR:
00:00:26
And CBS News homeland security correspondent Nicole Sganga joins us now. Nicole, thanks for being with us. What does it actually mean to reschedule a drug, and how would it affect people who are facing cases related to marijuana? Nancy, good to be with you. Reclassifying marijuana from a Schedule I drug where as you mentioned it sits alongside heroin, ecstasy, LSD to a less dangerous Schedule III substance, which includes drugs like Tylenol with codeine and anabolic steroids, it's not the same thing as legalizing it, but it would make it easier for scientists to study the drug's therapeutic uses, reduce some of the criminal penalties for those convicted of marijuana violations, and really start aligning the federal policy with that of a really long list of states. Now if President Trump followed through on this, it would mark a major shift in drug policy, but it wouldn't automatically lead to the release of individuals currently incarcerated for marijuana offenses or expunge their records. Keep in mind even though we've seen 6,000 marijuana related arrests every year, most individuals incarcerated for marijuana offenses are still held under state, not federal, laws. Still it feels like there's been a shift in how we approach marijuana in the past few decades. Recreational marijuana is now allowed in two dozen states. So is reclassification the first step in it being legal nationwide? Yeah, it is true, Nancy. I mean, with recreational use of marijuana legalized as you mentioned not only in 24 states but also DC, there's another seven states that have decriminalized its use, meaning they've removed criminal penalties for possessing and using small amounts. Plus 40 states allow medical use of cannabis products. It's a big shift. A Trump administration marijuana reclassification while it wouldn't legalize the drug, it could spur a wave of change, especially in those red state holdouts where marijuana remains strictly illegal. And just yesterday, Indiana governor Mike Braun said the president's move to consider reclassifying could add a little more fuel to the fire for marijuana legalization and its movement in the state, which is becoming really the exception not the rule, when it comes to weed prohibition along with other states like Nebraska, Wyoming, and Idaho where the drug is outlawed. Now in terms of a timeline on this, President Trump, you heard him there, he said his administration would make a determination over the next few weeks on reclassification. As for the rest, we could see states follow suit as soon as days or even weeks after.
ANCHOR:
00:02:58
Wow, that's pretty quick. Nicole Sganga, thank you very much.
