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A congressional lawmaker representing Washington, D.C. tells Marijuana Moment that she\u2019s \u201creally disappointed\u201d that Democratic House and Senate majorities failed to remove an ongoing rider<\/a> blocking the District from allowing recreational cannabis commerce as part of an omnibus spending bill that was released on Tuesday.<\/p>\n While advocates and stakeholders have largely focused on the exclusion of cannabis banking language from the appropriations legislation, the fact that the D.C. rider was maintained in the final deal stings differently, especially considering that both the House and Senate had omitted it<\/a> from their respecting spending bills<\/a> that advanced earlier this year.<\/p>\n Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) said in a phone interview with Marijuana Moment on Tuesday that she didn\u2019t necessarily fault Democratic leadership\u2014saying she\u2019s \u201cafraid they had no choice\u201d given GOP opposition, and that \u201cthe final bill had to have the agreement of both sides.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cInsisting on a specific provision would not have gotten us across\u201d to passing the spending package, the congresswoman said.<\/p>\n But with Democrats in control of both chambers and the presidency, it\u2019s a frustrating setback for advocates.<\/p>\n Norton said that she is \u201creally disappointed that we were not able to get this rider off since we control the House, the Senate and the presidency.\u201d<\/p>\n I\u2019m pleased the final FY 23 DC Appropriations contains significant victories for DC, including $40 million for DCTAG, but I\u2019m deeply disappointed it maintains the marijuana and abortion riders. <\/p>\n Release: https:\/\/t.co\/Zp5xGKaLvE<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Eleanor #DCStatehood Holmes Norton (@EleanorNorton) December 21, 2022<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n The congresswoman talked about her frustration with the final appropriations products just minutes after the D.C. Council voted to send a bill to Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) that would fundamentally change the District\u2019s existing medical cannabis program<\/a>.<\/p>\n Part of that legislation\u2014which would eliminate cannabis business licensing caps, provide tax relief to operators, promote social equity and more\u2014would also codify that adults can locally self-certify as medical marijuana patients. Norton had previously told Marijuana Moment that she viewed the reform as an effective workaround to the congressional rider\u2014but she said on Tuesday that she didn\u2019t think it would be sustainable in the long-term.<\/p>\n On the federal level, it would have helped in congressional negotiations if President Joe Biden\u2019s own budgets over the last two years hadn\u2019t maintained the D.C. rider<\/a>, she said.<\/p>\n \u201cHe seems to have been for the rider, and that didn\u2019t help us at all,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n There are a number of practical implications that go along with the ongoing spending rider, which has been in effect for years despite D.C. voters approving a 2014 ballot initiative to legalize possession and personal cultivation.<\/p>\n The congresswoman said that one of the key consequences is that, unlike other states that have legalized cannabis for medical or recreational use, D.C. will not \u201cbe able to tax this substance.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a real law for us, with anything that is so widely used\u2014and yet you can tax it because it can\u2019t be sold\u201d under the rider, she said.<\/p>\n She added that while this D.C. development is far from ideal, she does feel that not all cannabis reform will be derailed in the next Congress, even with Republicans in control of the House. \u201cNot all of them are against cannabis sales,\u201d she said. \u201cSome of this is happening in their own districts, so I\u2019m not giving up on this even though we\u2019ve lost the House.\u201d<\/p>\n After Biden issued a proclamation in October pardoning Americans who\u2019ve committed federal marijuana possession offenses, as well as people who\u2019ve violated the law in D.C., Norton called on the president to go further<\/a>\u00a0by federally legalizing cannabis and letting the District establish a commercial cannabis market and grant clemency on its own.<\/p>\n The congresswoman said the ongoing local ban, which was\u00a0maintained in Biden\u2019s first two budget proposals<\/a>, represents a \u201cshocking violation of D.C. home rule by a Democratic administration.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2014 A coalition of local, state and national advocacy organizations\u00a0recently asked the U.S. attorney general<\/a>\u00a0to formally adopt a policy of non-enforcement to allow the District to legalize marijuana sales even in light of the ongoing congressional ban.<\/p>\n A poll released in September found that\u00a0D.C. voters strongly support marijuana legalization<\/a>\u00a0and oppose a crackdown on the cannabis \u201cgifting\u201d market that\u2019s emerged in the absence of regulated sales.<\/p>\n Bowser, Norton and other elected officials in the city have routinely criticized Congress for singling out the District and depriving it of the ability to do what a growing number of states have done without federal interference.<\/p>\n Norton told Marijuana Moment in an earlier phone interview in July that she was \u201cfairly optimistic\u201d that the rider would not be included in the final spending package. She added that the D.C. self-certification policy is an \u201ceffective workaround\u201d until then.<\/p>\n Meanwhile,\u00a0the D.C. mayor signed a bill in July<\/a>\u00a0that bans most workplaces from firing or otherwise punishing employees for marijuana use.<\/p>\n The reform is designed to build upon on a previous measure lawmakers approved to protect local government employees against\u00a0workplace discrimination due to their use of medical cannabis<\/a>.<\/p>\n D.C. Medical Marijuana Bill To Eliminate License Caps, Provide Tax Relief And More Heads To Mayor\u2019s Desk<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n The post Democrats Failing To Remove D.C. Marijuana Sales Ban Is \u2018Really Disappointing,\u2019 Congresswoman Says<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
A congressional lawmaker representing Washington, D.C. tells Marijuana Moment that she\u2019s \u201creally disappointed\u201d that Democratic House and Senate majorities failed to remove an ongoing rider blocking the District from allowing recreational cannabis commerce as part of an omnibus spending bill that was released on Tuesday. While advocates and stakeholders haveContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":458,"featured_media":59710,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18,81],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59709"}],"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=59709"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59709\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":59711,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59709\/revisions\/59711"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59710"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59709"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59709"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59709"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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\nRead More: Democrats Failing To Remove D.C. Marijuana Sales Ban Is \u2018Really Disappointing,\u2019 Congresswoman Says<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"