The US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) will move ahead with plans to reclassify marijuana from the most strict classification of Schedule I to the less stringent Schedule III, according to multiple media reports Tuesday.
For more than 50 years, marijuana has been considered a Schedule I drug, classified on the same level as highly addictive narcotics like heroin and ecstasy.
Last year, the Health and Human Services Department recommended to the DEA that marijuana should be a Schedule III drug, which would put it alongside less addictive substances like Tylenol with codeine, ketamine and testosterone.
The measure, if enacted, would not legalize marijuana at the federal level but could broaden access to the drug for medicinal use and boost cannabis industries in states where it is legal.