The US Department of Justice is easing restrictions on certain marijuana products and accelerating the drug’s reclassification as less dangerous, marking one of the biggest shifts to U.S. drug policy in decades.
Reclassifying marijuana would be a first step in narrowing the wide policy chasm between state and federal cannabis laws, with the drug already legal in some form in more than 40 states.
Marijuana is currently grouped with heroin and LSD. Reclassification would move it to Schedule III, alongside Tylenol with codeine and ketamine.
Medicinal cannabis is legal in some form in 47 states, 3 United States territories, and the District of Columbia.
Below is a list of U.S. states along with Washington, D.C., District of Columbia, Guam and North Mariana Islands where marijuana is legal for recreational and medical purposes:
| States that allow non-medical use | States that allow only medical use |
| Alaska | Alabama |
| Arizona | Arkansas |
| California | Florida |
| Connecticut | Hawaii |
| Delaware | Kentucky |
| Illinois | Louisiana |
| Maine | Mississippi |
| Massachusetts | New Hampshire |
| Michigan | North Dakota |
| Minnesota | Oklahoma |
| Missouri | Pennsylvania |
| Montana | South Dakota |
| Nevada | Texas |
| New Jersey | Utah |
| New Mexico | West Virginia |
| New York | Tennessee |
| Ohio | North Carolina |
| Oregon | South Carolina |
| Rhode Island | Georgia |
| Vermont | Indiana |
| Virginia | Wisconsin |
| Washington | Iowa |
| Maryland | Wyoming |
| Colorado |
** Source – City of Los Angeles Department of Cannabis Regulation & CDC