President Biden to pardon all prior federal offenses for simple marijuana possession

Yahoo Finance Live checks out cannabis stocks following headlines that President BIden will pardon all prior offenses of marijuana possession.

Video transcript

DAVE BRIGGS: All right, some breaking news now, Seana, some big for the cannabis space. President Biden announcing moments ago the administration will pardon all prior federal offenses of simple marijuana possession. This, folks, is a major step toward decriminalization, most believe. Cannabis stocks are jumping at the news.

You can see Aurora, Canopy, Curaleaf, Green Thumb, Trulieve, all flying on this news. In particular, Trulieve up 33. Green Thumb, 26. Curaleaf, the leader in the space, climbing towards 40% up on this news because of presumed optimism of federal legalization.

Biden instructing Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra to initiate a review on how marijuana is scheduled under federal law. Currently, marijuana is a Schedule I drug designated for the most dangerous substances on the same level as heroin and LSD. Pot stocks flying on this news. Interesting to digest it over the next couple of days and see if there really is optimism towards federal legalization.

We've still heard zero Republicans to date in the Senate support any legislation, even Safe Banking, which has passed the House six times and cannot get out of the Senate. And that does not have to do with federal legalization, but just rather the banking space. Seana, it's interesting to see this kind of optimism.

SEANA SMITH: It is. It's very interesting to see this kind of optimism, especially when you take a look at how the stocks are reacting to this. And I think they have been waiting for this sort of ruling here or some sort of statement from the White House, from the administration, in terms of their plans here, how they are going to deal with some of those offenses.

So the fact that we are getting this news, we're seeing the reaction in some of the largest players in this space, Dave, with Aurora up just around 5 and 1/2%, Curaleaf rallying-- look at that-- up 29%, now up 30%. Green Thumb, Trulieve, here all have a massive move to the upside. So the catalyst, I think, that this sector has been waiting for, for quite some time.

DAVE BRIGGS: Yeah, I'll just be honest here. I mean, I-- this business has been waiting for anything optimistic. I don't know that this changes the equation at all, but I understand that they've been waiting for any sort of good news in this industry.