(Rewrites to focus on a potential move by the U.S. government to make marijuana
use a less serious crime)
       April 30 (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)