INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Indiana is one of 12 states where marijuana is not legal, but the federal government’s decision to reschedule the drug could change that.

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration will move to reclassify marijuana as a less dangerous drug, The Associated Press learned on Tuesday. Reclassification would be a historic shift to generations of American drug policy that could have wide ripple effects across the country.

The process would move marijuana from a Schedule I drug to a Schedule III drug, meaning it will be considered less serious.

Indiana state Sen. Greg Taylor, a Democrat from Indianapolis, said, “It does not legalize cannabis. What it does is now you can treat cannabis, THC, like you do other industries that can be regulated.”

Taylor, the Indiana Senate’s Democratic minority Leader, has long been an advocate of legalization and has worked across the aisle with Republicans to try and make that happen.

Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb has said he would only consider signing legalization legislation if the federal government reclassified marijuana to a less serious drug. Holcomb’s press secretary said Tuesday that his position has not changed.

Taylor said reclassifying the drug is a start. “There are 38 states who have some form of cannabis policy that regulates the use of cannabis, like we do, for example, with alcohol. I don’t think it’s far-fetched for us to do the same thing.”

The state senator says reclassifying the drug will reduce the chance that people of color and from low-income backgrounds will serve long jail sentence for possessing marijuana. Reclassification would also allow state lawmakers to further study the benefits of legalization.

“There’s also studies out there about the effects on people with PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder). We’ve talked about different strategies associated with medical use, for schizophrenia,” Taylor said.