The White House on Monday declined the chance to blame illicit marijuana sales for a rise in violent crime in Washington, D.C.\u2014despite the city\u2019s police chief recently arguing that the issues are connected.<\/p>\n
D.C. Police Chief Robert Contee suggested on Friday that part of the reason for the uptick in violent crime is connected to the illegal cannabis market<\/a>, which he says has been deprioritized amid the national reform movement.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you have something where people get high reward\u2014they can make a lot of money by selling illegal marijuana\u2014and the risk is low, the risk for accountability is very low, that creates a very, very, very, very, very bad situation,\u201d Contee argued at a press conference near the site of a shooting this month.<\/p>\n Advocates assert that Congress bears some blame for consistently passing a spending bill rider that bars the District from regulating retail sales after voters approved a 2014 initiative to legalize personal possession and cultivation for adults, thus relegating cannabis commerce to the illegal market.<\/p>\n Late last month, a House committee approved a large-scale funding bill that would\u00a0allow the District to legalize cannabis sales<\/a> by deleting the rider. The legislation is expected to pass the full House this week.<\/p>\n In any case, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki was asked directly on Monday by a Fox News reporter whether the Biden administration thinks \u201cthat it may be time to get tougher on marijuana\u201d in light of the chief\u2019s comments. And she notably did not jump at the chance to vilify cannabis despite President Joe Biden\u2019s ongoing opposition to adult-use legalization.<\/p>\n \u201cWe look to the crime that has been happening in D.C.\u2014again one of the cities where we\u2019ve seen rising violence over the past year and a half,\u201d she said, pivoting quickly away from the cannabis query to discuss crime more generally. It\u2019s \u201cone we\u2019re working in close partnership through both the [Justice Department] as well as our community violence intervention collaborative. We\u2019re looking to address a range of causes, working in close partnership with the mayor and local police to bring crime down in our city.\u201d<\/p>\n The fact that Psaki decided not to take aim at marijuana specifically, despite being prompted by comments made by one of the the top law enforcement official in the nation\u2019s capital, is significant\u2014if only because the administration to this point has been firmly footed in maintaining the status quo of prohibition.<\/p>\n Biden\u2019s budget proposal specifically proposes continuing the longstanding Republican-led rider<\/a> that has prevented the city from spending its own money to regulate adult-use cannabis commerce, for example.<\/p>\n Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) in May blasted the president in an interview with Marijuana Moment<\/a>\u00a0for seeking to extend the provision blocking her city from making its own cannabis decisions, saying she is \u201cgoing to be working very hard to make sure that that rider is not in the budget\u201d that lawmakers ultimately send back to Biden\u2019s desk.<\/p>\n Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) said in April that local officials are prepared to move forward with\u00a0implementing a legal system of recreational cannabis sales<\/a>\u00a0in the nation\u2019s capital just as soon as they can get over the final \u201churdle\u201d of congressional interference.<\/p>\n From advocates\u2019 perspective, allowing D.C. to do what a growing number of states have already done by regulating cannabis could help mitigate the risks associated with enabling an illicit market to continue. Giving adults the option to purchase marijuana from a licensed retailer would make it less likely that the city would see any violent criminal activity that can be tied to illegal cannabis sales, they say.<\/p>\n Psaki didn\u2019t make that point, but she didn\u2019t seize the opportunity to target cannabis as a contributing factor to D.C. violence either.<\/p>\n This adds to the White House narrative on marijuana that\u2019s evolved throughout the Biden administration.<\/p>\n During his presidential campaign last year, Biden ran on a pledge to enact other modest reforms such as decriminalizing cannabis possession, expunging prior records and respecting the rights of states to set their own laws. Since taking office, however, his administration has not made progress on any of those promises and has instead\u00a0fired its own White House staffers over marijuana<\/a> and is seeking to extend the D.C. sales block.<\/p>\n Biden took some by surprise by suggesting that international sports rules on marijuana may need to be reevaluated<\/a> after star U.S. runner Sha\u2019Carri Richardson was suspended following a positive cannabis test. But that\u2019s a far cry from endorsing comprehensive reform.<\/p>\n Psaki, for her part, initially\u00a0declined to condemn Olympics officials\u2019 sanction<\/a>\u00a0on Richardson when asked about the issue at an earlier briefing with reporters. But she later told CNN that the case highlights\u00a0the need to \u201ctake another look\u201d at the rules<\/a>\u00a0on cannabis.<\/p>\n In April, the press secretary said that Biden\u2019s campaign pledge to release federal inmates with marijuana convictions will\u00a0start with modestly rescheduling cannabis<\/a>\u2014a proposal that advocates say wouldn\u2019t actually accomplish what she\u2019s suggesting.<\/p>\n On broad legalization, Psaki said recently that the president remains opposed to the reform<\/a>, despite Senate leadership introducing a bill this month to federally legalize marijuana<\/a>.<\/p>\n Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ), one of the three leaders on the measure, said recently that he and his Senate colleagues will be talking to the White House<\/a> now that they\u2019ve released draft reform legislation.<\/p>\n FDA Seeks Public Input On Possible Global Kratom Ban After Domestic Scheduling Effort Stalled<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n The post White House Declines To Blame Marijuana Sales For Violent Crime Spike Despite D.C. Police Chief\u2019s Comments<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
The White House on Monday declined the chance to blame illicit marijuana sales for a rise in violent crime in Washington, D.C.\u2014despite the city\u2019s police chief recently arguing that the issues are connected. D.C. Police Chief Robert Contee suggested on Friday that part of the reason for the uptick inContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":458,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18,81,126],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49068"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/458"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49068"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49068\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49069,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49068\/revisions\/49069"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49068"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49068"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49068"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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\nRead More: White House Declines To Blame Marijuana Sales For Violent Crime Spike Despite D.C. Police Chief\u2019s Comments<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"