Democrats hope move to reschedule marijuana will help them in November

A half-century after high school kids in California's Marin County started using "4:20" as code for smoking marijuana, political advisers to the 81-year-old teetotaler president, Joe Biden, began signaling that he was hip to reefer slang.

The Department of Health and Human Services announced at 4:20 p.m. one day last year that it was moving forward with a plan to reschedule the drug. President Biden and Vice President Harris each tweeted at 4:20 p.m. on April 20 of this year that they supported reducing criminal penalties for pot users.

Attorney General Merrick Garland's announcement Tuesday that he was rescheduling marijuana under federal law was just the latest turn in what Biden's advisers see as a key political strategy - along with issues such as student loan relief and climate policy - to unlock votes this fall. When Biden's White House social media account blasted out highlights from his 2024 State of the Union address, the X post quoting his promise to not jail marijuana users got more likes than ones on gun safety, the climate crisis and billionaire taxes.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/05/01/marijuana-biden-democrats-election/