GOP-Controlled Senate Committee Warns DC That Marijuana Is Federally Illegal, With ‘Enhanced Penalties’ For Sales Near Schools

GOP members of a powerful Senate committee are issuing a reminder that
marijuana remains illegal under federal law and that the sale of cannabis
near public schools and playgrounds can carry “enhanced penalties”—an issue
they are specifically highlighting in relation to the location of
dispensaries in Washington, D.C.

The Republican majority in the Senate Appropriations Committee released the
text of a Financial Services and General Government (FSGG) spending bill
and an attached report on Tuesday. As expected, the legislation itself
retains a rider long championed by Rep. Andy Harris (R-MD) barring D.C.
from using its tax dollars to legalize and regulate recreational marijuana
sales, despite voters approving a ballot initiative to allow possession and
home cultivation more than a decade ago.

In the report, a section on funding for “emergency planning and security
costs” associated with the federal government’s presence in the District
includes additional language related to cannabis enforcement and zoning
issues.

*Here’s the text of that section:*

“*Marijuana Dispensary Proximity to Schools*—The Committee reminds the
District that the distribution, manufacturing, and sale of marijuana
remains illegal under Federal law, which includes enhanced penalties for
such distribution within one thousand feet of a public or private
elementary, vocational, or secondary school or public or private college,
junior college, or university, or a playground, among other real property
where children frequent.”

The report language is being released months after anti-marijuana
organizations formally narced on several locally licensed cannabis
businesses in D.C.—sending a letter to President Donald Trump, the U.S.
attorney general and a federal prosecutor that identifies dispensaries they
allege are too close to schools despite approval from District officials.

The groups said that while they were “pleased” to see former interim U.S.
Attorney Ed Martin “take initial steps against one of the worst offenders”
by threatening a locally licensed medical marijuana dispensary with
criminal prosecution back in March, “we have not seen any public progress
since then.”

Martin, for his part, has since been tapped by Trump to serve as U.S.
pardon attorney.

Meanwhile, the underlying FSGG spending bill put forward by the committee’s
GOP majority would continue to prohibit D.C. from creating a regulated,
commercial cannabis market.

*Here’s the text of the bill language:*

“*SEC. 809.* (a) None of the Federal funds contained in this Act may be
used to enact or carry out any law, rule, or regulation to legalize or
otherwise reduce penalties associated with the possession, use, or
distribution of any schedule I substance under the Controlled Substances
Act (21 U.S.C. 801 et seq.) or any tetrahydrocannabinols derivative.

(b) No funds available for obligation or expenditure by the District of
Columbia government under any authority may be used to enact any law, rule,
or regulation to legalize or otherwise reduce penalties associated with the
possession, use, or distribution of any schedule I substance under the
Controlled Substances Act (21 U.S.C. 801 et seq.) or any
tetrahydrocannabinols derivative for recreational purposes.”

Senate Democrats on the committee have made clear they don’t associate
themselves with the newly released bill and report, though leadership
hasn’t specifically called out the cannabis components.

“It’s disappointing that Senate Republicans chose to release a partisan
bill instead of working with Senate Democrats to reach a final compromise,”
Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA), vice chair of the panel, said.

“While the FSGG bill funds critical functions of government, I wish this
bill had addressed additional important issues,” she said. “I remain
committed to reaching a bipartisan agreement on the bill in conference in
the coming weeks, alongside the remainder of our funding bills, and I’ll
continue fighting for working families at every step of the way.”

Recreational cannabis possession and personal cultivation is legal in D.C.
under a voter-approved ballot initiative, though commercial sales of
non-medical marijuana remain illegal.

Because of the congressional rider that’s been renewed annually since that
vote, the District hasn’t been able to use its local funds to implement a
system of regulated recreational cannabis sales, so officials have taken
steps to expand the city’s existing medical marijuana program as a
workaround.

Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) has routinely criticized appropriators
for putting forward bills that restrict the District’s autonomy in a number
of ways, including the rider to “prohibit the use of funds to commercialize
recreational marijuana.”

Norton said in May that she would again again push her colleagues to join
her in an effort to remove the cannabis language.

Trump’s budget request that he released in June also contained the Harris
rider preventing marijuana sales in D.C. Former President Joe Biden also
repeatedly requested the continuation of the D.C. cannabis rider in budget
proposals during his time in office.

While D.C. hasn’t been able to use its local funds to implement a system of
regulated recreational cannabis sales over the last decade, local officials
have taken steps to expand the city’s existing medical marijuana program as
a workaround.

In March, meanwhile, the White House called the District’s move to
decriminalize marijuana an example of a “failed” policy that “opened the
door to disorder.”

In a fact sheet about an executive order that Trump signed—which is broadly
aimed at beautifying the District and making it more safe—the White House
listed several local policies in the nation’s capital that it takes issue
with, including cannabis reform. That’s despite the president’s previously
stated support for a states’ rights approach to marijuana laws.

“D.C.’s failed policies opened the door to disorder—and criminals noticed,”
it says, citing “marijuana decriminalization,” as well as the District’s
decision to end pre-trial detentions and enforcement practices around
rioters, as examples of such policies.

The post GOP-Controlled Senate Committee Warns DC That Marijuana Is
Federally Illegal, With ‘Enhanced Penalties’ For Sales Near Schools
appeared first on Marijuana Moment.