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A key Republican lawmaker signaled on Tuesday that he\u2019s interested in reassessing the federal ban that has blocked Washington, D.C. from legalizing, regulating and taxing recreational marijuana sales.<\/p>\n
The comments came at a\u00a0House Oversight and Accountability Committee hearing in response to testimony from D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser (D), who said that the congressional appropriations rider that has long prevented her city from implementing adult-use cannabis commerce \u201chas a public safety impact.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe men and women of the police department are battling gray market cannabis sales daily that, if we had a tax and regulate system, we could implement a more safe system,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\nChairman James Comer (R-KY) seemed sympathetic to the problem, saying at the end of the hearing that the marijuana issue that the mayor identified was one of the \u201cthings that caught my attention.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t know what the law was on that,\u201d he said, referring to the rider that prohibits D.C. from using its local tax dollars to legalize and implement marijuana sales. \u201cWe\u2019re researching that.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nAsked about any specific plans to address the D.C. cannabis issue, a spokesperson for Comer told Marijuana Moment on Wednesday that the office did not have \u201canything further to share at this time.\u201d<\/p>\n
In any case, it was a notable exchange considering that Comer has generally limited his support for cannabis reform to hemp issues<\/a>. The Kentucky congressman twice voted against bills to federally legalize marijuana and took a pair of contrasting votes on amendments to shield state legalization laws from federal interference.<\/p>\n The chairman\u2019s commitment to researching the broader marijuana problem for D.C. also came after another GOP committee member launched into a tirade against marijuana.<\/p>\n Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX) called cannabis \u201can addictive, dangerous product\u201d and suggested that D.C. should increase enforcement against people who consume it.<\/p>\n \u201cYour members, D.C. members, and your people who are in your police force and others should recognize that there are things being mixed in marijuana. There are hallucinogens,\u201d he told Bowser and other local officials who appeared<\/a> before the committee. \u201cThere are problems that we have, and you\u2019re gonna keep having violent crime if you keep having the positions that you take on allowing marijuana to be openly smoked.\u201d<\/p>\n Sessions, when he previously served as chairman of the powerful Rules Committee, consistently blocked marijuana amendments from being considered<\/a> on the House floor.<\/p>\n D.C. voters legalized marijuana possession, cultivation and gifting under a non-commercial model in 2014, but people are not allowed to consume in public spaces.<\/p>\n \u2014 While Comer said that he wasn\u2019t previously aware of the congressional restrictions that are being imposed on the District when it comes to marijuana, the issue was separately raised in written testimony for a hearing<\/a> in his panel in March.<\/p>\n D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson (D) told the committee at the time that \u201ccongressional interference\u201d in local laws on issues like cannabis threatens the city\u2019s ability to \u201caddress crime and public safety.\u201d<\/p>\n Advocates have continued to push for an end to the federal blockade, but that effort ultimately failed for\u00a0the 2023 Fiscal Year, with congressional lawmakers passing a final spending deal before the new session that keeps the rider, even though\u00a0both the House and Senate had<\/a>\u00a0omitted it in their respective versions<\/a>\u00a0last year.<\/p>\n After President Joe 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., U.S. Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC)\u00a0called 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 three budget proposals<\/a>, represents a \u201cshocking violation of D.C. home rule by a Democratic administration.\u201d<\/p>\n 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 Meanwhile,\u00a0Congress did recently allow a D.C. law to go into effect<\/a>\u00a0that makes fundamental changes to the District\u2019s medical marijuana program.<\/p>\n The measure includes reforms such as eliminating cannabis business licensing caps, providing tax relief to operators, further promoting social equity and creating new regulated business categories such as on-site consumption facilities and cannabis cooking classes.<\/p>\n The Medical Cannabis Amendment Act further codifies that adults can self-certify as medical marijuana patients\u2014a policy that\u2019s served as a partial workaround of the federal rider.<\/p>\n Minnesota House Could Take Final Vote On Marijuana Legalization Bill Imminently Following Completion Of Conference Report<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n Photo courtesy of Brian Shamblen<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n The post Key GOP Congressman Says He\u2019ll Review Federal Ban On Marijuana Sales In D.C. After Mayor Raises Safety Concerns<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
A key Republican lawmaker signaled on Tuesday that he\u2019s interested in reassessing the federal ban that has blocked Washington, D.C. from legalizing, regulating and taxing recreational marijuana sales. The comments came at a\u00a0House Oversight and Accountability Committee hearing in response to testimony from D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser (D), who saidContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":458,"featured_media":65075,"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\/65074"}],"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=65074"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65074\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":65076,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65074\/revisions\/65076"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65075"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65074"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65074"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65074"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\nRead More: Key GOP Congressman Says He\u2019ll Review Federal Ban On Marijuana Sales In D.C. After Mayor Raises Safety Concerns<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"