(Reuters) - The U.S. Department of Justice is moving to make marijuana use a less serious crime, taking a step to reclassify the drug out of a category that includes heroin.
Reclassifying marijuana represents a first step toward narrowing the wide policy chasm between state and federal cannabis laws, with the drug legal in some form in nearly 40 states.
Currently, Marijuana falls under the same classification as heroin and LSD. A successful reclassification would include marijuana in the schedule three list alongside drugs such as Tylenol with codeine and ketamine.
Below is the list of U.S. states along with Washington DC that have legalized recreational marijuana:
State Start of recreational Projected revenue in 2023**
cannabis Sales
Ohio Effective end of 2024 N/A
Minnesota Effective 2025 N/A
Virginia Effective 2024 $198 million
Maryland Effective July 2023 $477 million
Delaware April 2023 $39 million
Missouri February 2023 $1.56 billion
Connecticut January 2023 $297 million
New York December 2022 $391 million
Rhode Island December 2022 $251 million
Vermont October 2022 $212 million
Washington July 2014 $1.20 billion
New Jersey April 2022 $1.09 billion
New Mexico April 2022 $650 million
Montana January 2022 $346 million
Arizona January 2021 $1.36 billion
Maine October 2020 $413 million
Illinois January 2020 $2 billion
Michigan December 2019 $2.70 billion
Massachusetts July 2018 $1.78 billion
California January 2018 $4.90 billion
Nevada July 2017 $867 million
Alaska October 2016 $98 million
Oregon October 2015 $941 million
Washington D.C. July 2014 $1.20 billion
Colorado January 2014 $1.60 billion
** Source - TD Cowen estimates from April 19
(Reporting by Mrinalika Roy, Sourasis Bose in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D'Silva and Shounak Dasgupta)
