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Biden Moves On Marijuana: How Big Of A Deal Is This? : 1A President Biden surprised the nation when he announced he would pardon all simple marijuana convictions at the federal level.

It's a decision that echoes policy at the state level. Thirty-one states and D.C. no longer prosecute or criminalize a person for possessing small amounts of cannabis.

Experts say the bigger move was his request for the government to review marijuana's classification as a Schedule 1 drug – a category reserved for dangerous narcotics like heroin.

We discuss what it would mean if marijuana is rescheduled and national drug policy.

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Biden Moves On Marijuana: How Big Of A Deal Is This?

Biden Moves On Marijuana: How Big Of A Deal Is This?

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Cannabis plants are grown at a Claudine Field Apothecary farm in Columbia County, New York. Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images hide caption

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Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images

Cannabis plants are grown at a Claudine Field Apothecary farm in Columbia County, New York.

Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images

Last Thursday, President Biden surprised the nation by announcing that he would pardon all simple marijuana convictions at the federal level.

It's a decision that echoes policy at the state level. Thirty-one states and D.C. no longer prosecute or criminalize a person for possessing small amounts of cannabis.

Experts say the bigger move was his request for the government to review marijuana's classification as a Schedule 1 drug – a category reserved for dangerous narcotics like heroin.

Biden has requested the review be "expedited." But how fast could it happen? And if marijuana is rescheduled, what would that mean?

Director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy Dr. Rahul Gupta, Pluribus News' Sophie Quinton, and the director of the RAND Drug Policy Research Center, Beau Kilmer, join us for the conversation.

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