Top GOP federal legislator says Washington, D.C. should be allowed to legalize marijuana without interference from Congress.
Rep. James Comer, R-KY, chairman of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee said that D.C. mayor Muriel Bowser raised the congressional riders blocking her District’s implementation of a commercial marijuana market during a local crime issue meeting.
We’re looking into everything. Comer added that Bowser had previously drawn his attention to the marijuana sale blockade at a hearing before his committee in May.
The congressman responded that he had not heard of the issue at the time and would look into it. On Wednesday, when asked specifically about his support for allowing Washington D.C. to tax and regulate marijuana, he replied NBC Washington “if that’s the Washington D.C. want, yes.”
Comer made a vague reference to a Senate Bill that he said could be used to implement the reform. However, it is unclear to what he was alluding. The advocates have generally called for the removal of an appropriations riders that has been renewed annually for years, despite the fact that D.C. voters approved the legalization ballot measure in 2014.
In March, D.C. Council Chair Phil Mendelson told the Chairman’s Committee that “congressional intervention” in local laws like marijuana threatened the city’s “ability to address crime and public security.”
Comer has expressed interest in removing the rider. However, last month the GOP-controlled House Rules Committee prevented an amendment to the underlying appropriations legislation that covered Financial Services and General Government.
In March, President Joe Biden’s Fiscal Year 2024 budget request that he released also maintained the D.C. rider for the third year in a row. The President Joe Biden’s Fiscal Year 2020 budget request, which he published in March, also included the D.C. Rider for the third consecutive year.
To partially solve the problem, D.C. legislators have passed a number of laws to simplify the access to the city’s medical cannabis program. This includes , which allows people to self-certify themselves as medical marijuana patients. This applies to residents and non-residents alike.
Bowser signed a law in October that allowed medical marijuana patients submit their products directly to laboratories for testing. also let regulators issue temporary registrations for cannabis patients to non-residents for up to one year, instead of thirty days.
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In July, a law in D.C. went into effect that prohibits private employers from firing employees or punishing them for using marijuana during non-work time.
This reform is intended to extend a measure previously approved by lawmakers to protect employees of local governments against discrimination in the workplace due to their use medical cannabis to include workers at private businesses.
A coalition of local and state advocacy groups requested the U.S. Attorney General last year adopt a formal policy of non-enforcement in order to allow the District of Columbia to legalize the sale of marijuana despite the continuing congressional ban.
According to a poll conducted last year, D.C. Voters strongly support marijuana legalization, and oppose any crackdown on the “gifting” cannabis market that has emerged due to the lack of regulated sales.
Marijuana is now legal in Ohio as a voter-approved law takes effect, but lawmakers are considering some changes
Photo by WeedPornDaily.
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