Biden Continues To Block Weed Sales In DC After Touting Marijuana Rescheduling And Pardons In SOTU

Washington, D.C. will not be able to legalize recreational cannabis sales as part of the budget proposal for Fiscal Year 2025 that the Biden-Harris administration submitted to Congress on Monday.

The D.C. cannabis provision has been blocking the nation's capital from using its local tax dollars to implement a legal recreational cannabis sales program, even though DC voters overwhelmingly approved cannabis legalization in 2014.

President Joe Biden decided once again to exclude Washington, D.C. from legalizing recreational cannabis sales as part of the Fiscal Year 2025 budget request despite last week’s State of the Union speech, during which he reiterated that no one should be incarcerated for possessing cannabis.

See also: GOP Halts Cannabis Sales in Capital, Blocks Job Reforms: What’s Next?

Moreover, the Department of Health and Human Services, under Biden’s direction, recommended moving marijuana from Schedule I to a Schedule III substance under the Controlled Substances Act, on Aug, 29 in a letter to DEA administrator Anne Milgram.

The document Congress is about to review still maintains the appropriations rider preventing Justice Department interference in the state- and territory-level medical marijuana programs, reported Marijuana Moment.

In the meantime, shops that are ‘gifting' cannabis without a license continue to flourish in the absence of a marijuana sales regulatory framework.

The D.C. Council recently greenlighted an emergency measure that gives city officials the authority to impose penalties on unlicensed marijuana gifting shops that do not operate under the city's medical cannabis program.

Under the Medical Cannabis Enforcement Emergency Amendment Act of 2024 from Ward 6 Councilmember Charles Allen which lawmakers unanimously supported this past January, cannabis businesses that fail to apply for the program or meet its requirements are liable to face civil enforcement. Mayor Muriel Bowser signed the bill into law in late January.

Now read: Weed Could Be Biden’s Ace Up The Sleeve Against Trump If He Would Fulfill His Campaign Promises

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