Assistant Secretary of Health Rachel Levine asked Drug Enforcement Agency administrator Anne Milgram to reclassify marijuana as a lower-risk drug, a move that would have major implications for the legal status of the popular drug nationwide.

Levine recommended in a letter that cannabis, which is currently a Schedule I drug under the Controlled Substances Act, be downgraded to a Schedule III substance based upon a recent Food and Drug Administration review of the controversial substance, according to Bloomberg.

DESANTIS SHOWCASES ABILITY TO GOVERN WITH HURRICANE RESPONSE

Schedule I drugs include highly addictive substances that have no legal medical purpose, such as heroin. Schedule III drugs have significantly less abuse potential than Schedule I or II substances but "may lead to moderate or low physical dependence or high psychological dependence," according to the DEA.

President Joe Biden in Oct. issued a blanket federal pardon to all those with simple possession of marijuana charges at the federal level and encouraged state governors to do the same.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

In the same executive order, Biden asked Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra and Attorney General Merrick Garland to initiate a review process of the scheduling classification of cannabis in order to progress federal drug policy.