for more than a decade, states like colorado and washington state, is that those racial disparities have not gone away. in some places they ve actually increased. and so, again, that is another unintended consequence of supposedly well meaning legislation. paul: kim, when it comes to california, california s having a real hard time as jason suggested, and one of their answers here is to try to get an exemption under federal law to be able to form a compact with other states that are, have legal marijuana so that they can export some of their marijuana to these other states so that the pricing will be, the supply-demand mix will be better in california. [laughter] it s, it s really weird particularly because under federal law the controlled substances act, marijuana is still illegal. it s a schedule i drug. yeah. i mean, can you think about this, let s think about this in another context. let s imagine that texas wanted to make a compact to export
and that s what we need to talk about here in this country, too, tee scheduling cannabis, removing if from the controlled substances act completely. i wanted to dig in on that point because marijuana is classified on the same level as substances like fentanyl, methamphetamine, heroin, it s a schedule i drug. you noted the president directing hhs to review that. how do you think it should be handled? well, again, it s not a new idea. ten years ago we were protesting for the concept of de-scheduling cannabis, removing it from the controlled substances act. this would ensconce with states have done and allow other states to move forward. when we talk about advancing national policy another point was taken this week, which is that pardons like mine at the federal level need to happen at the state level. millions of people have records, mostly black and brown americans, for state-level
decriminalization of marijuana. it is not the full decriminalization, but he is going to pardon all prior federal offenses of simple marijuana possession. that is going to potentially affect thousands of americans. some estimates from the white house, about 6,500 americans in addition to washington, d.c. in addition to this major step by president biden, which the white house does say is in an effort to fulfill a campaign promise to ease violations on those conning victim s of marijuana use. the president is also urging governors to do the same. he is also instructing the department of health and human services and the attorney general to conduct a review into what marijuana is classified as. right now it is a schedule i drug higher than fentanyl. this is a huge step by president