meanwhile U.S health officials this week recommended easing restrictions on marijuana the drug is still illegal at the federal level even as adult use recreational markets expand here in New Jersey and across the country according to reports from Bloomberg News a top leader at the Department of Health and Human Services sent a letter on Tuesday to the DEA requesting marijuana to be reclassified from a schedule 1 to a schedule 3 drug which would be one of the most significant reforms to cannabis in modern history here to talk about what this shift would mean is Rob Mejia an adjunct professor at Stockton University's cannabis studies Department Robert I mean you're obviously very tuned in to what's happening within the Cannabis industry how big a deal would this be if in fact marijuana does get rescheduled well it would definitely be historical so to give some very quick context Back in 1970 when Richard Nixon was President he put in the controlled substance act and that created five different categories of drugs and at that point cannabis was put as a level one drug level one substance which means it was highly addictive no medical applicability and subject to a lot of abuse it was put there on the same in the same section with Heroin LSD peyote so it's pretty remarkable that Daddy had happened so we've been living with that system since 1970 so essentially this this would be the first time that it had moved from a schedule one to potentially a schedule three and then schedule three to give you some context that's where ketamine and anabolic steroids which is manufactured lab testosterone those are two substances that are scheduled three so yeah it's a great example I mean these are drugs that can legally be obtained with a prescription yet we have all of these cannabis markets New Jersey included where folks can buy this legally if you're of age how has that affected the industry from expanding when at the federal level this is still illegal yeah the biggest winners if this really does go through and let me say first of all that this is not a done deal so what happens is that the FDA Health and Human Services in consultation with Nita the National Institute of drug abuse they all have been conducting a medical and scientific review of cannabis they have come up with a recommendation that it be placed on schedule three now it's up to the DEA to also do their own determination to decide whether it in fact should go to schedule three so it's not a done deal now but if it does go through the very biggest winners are those who are current cannabis operators because when it goes from schedule one to schedule three that means that part of the tax code that cannabis has been laboring under and has really been pummeled under is called 280e well 280e did not allow for normal deductions and you are not allowed to run cannabis as a normal business you have to pay exorbitant taxes and so getting rid of 280e that means that that is going to open up profitability for the Cannabis operators and it will also open up investment because now it'll be much more attractive to invest in a business that can have regular cash flow so the fact that 280e would go away that is the one biggest thing that current cannabis operators are dancing around about okay so since you touched on it let me just ask you quickly in the time we have left this classification has really hindered folks yes with getting lines of credit doing regular banking folks who are looking to break into the Cannabis industry will it make it easier for them it should because it's a signal that it looks like we're going to be loosening up some regulations going forward so that when Congress is back in section in session they can take up the safe Banking Act again and it will be hopefully a little more palatable for them to do that so it does indicate that banking may open up Robert Mejia is an Adjunct professor at Stockton University's cannabis studies Department Robert thanks so much now you're very welcome