Trump Signs Bill Continuing To Block D.C. From Legalizing Recreational Marijuana

As advocates and stakeholders await action on a federal marijuana
rescheduling proposal, President Donald Trump has signed large-scale
spending legislation that continues a longstanding policy blocking
Washington, D.C. from legalizing recreational cannabis sales.

Despite District voters approving adult-use legalization for personal
possession and cultivation at the ballot more than a decade ago, local
officials have been consistently prevented from allowing commercial sales
due to an appropriations rider included in a funding bill covering
Financial Services and General Government (FSGG).

That rider, championed by Rep. Andy Harris (R-MD), was maintained in the
latest version approved by Congress and signed by the president on Wednesay
as part of a large-scale funding package.

*Here’s the text of the D.C. sales rider:*

“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.”

For what it’s worth, while the rider was left intact in this latest FSGG
bill, its main sponsor, Harris, may be at risk of being unseated in
November due to redistricting in his state.

The Maryland House of Delegates on Monday approved a congressional
redistricting proposal that would leave anti-cannabis Harris especially
vulnerable in the next election, according to analysts, giving Democrats an
advantage in the state’s first congressional district for the first time
since the last map was drawn in 2011. It remains to be seen whether the
Senate will follow the House’s lead to pass the legislation, however.

While the renewal of the rider represents a setback for advocates,
congressional analysts say that, if federal officials follow through with
moving marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule III of the Controlled
Substances Act (CSA), that could free up D.C. to create a system of
regulated sales.

In a report published in 2024, the Congressional Research Service (CRS)
said that while federal cannabis prohibition would still be the law of the
land, it “would permit the District government, as a matter of local law,
to authorize the commercial sale of recreational marijuana, establish
market regulations, and levy marijuana taxes, among other policy options.”

There is a complication, however, because the congressional provision
that’s been annually renewed since 2014 also stipulates that the District
of Columbia can’t use funds to legalize or reduce penalties for “any
tetrahydrocannabinols derivative.”

But that term isn’t clearly defined in the rider or anywhere else in
federal law.

“The continued prohibition on legalization of tetrahydrocannabinols
derivatives by the District could lead to interpretive questions about
whether a particular substance is legally marijuana, hemp, a
tetrahydrocannabinols derivative, or something else,” the 2024 CRS
report says.

“Certain synthetic tetrahydrocannabinols remain illegal for recreational
use under D.C. law, but it is not clear whether these synthetic substances
would constitute derivatives,” it says. “In addition, although federal law
defines marijuana and hemp to be exclusive of each other, a substance could
conceivably be both a tetrahydrocannabinols derivative and marijuana or
hemp as a matter of law.”


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One of the nation’s top cannabis advocacy groups, NORML, also posted an
analysis in 2024 arguing that rescheduling could “open a door” for D.C. to
finally legalize adult-use marijuana sales. The group suggested that the
term tetrahydrocannabinols derivative “is unlikely to be interpreted by a
court as inclusive of marijuana generally.”

In 2021, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) separately responded to
a congressional inquiry and affirmed that, even with the D.C. marijuana
sales ban in place, local lawmakers there can still take steps to prepare
for the potential creational of a regulated recreational marijuana market.

Medical cannabis sales are already legal in D.C.

Last March, the White House claimed that marijuana reform in Washington,
D.C. is an example of a “failed” policy that “opened the door to disorder.”

The Trump administration last year asked a federal court to dismiss a
lawsuit from a D.C. hemp business challenging the federal government over
the congressional budget restriction preventing cannabis sales.

About three months after Capitol Hemp filed the suit in U.S. District Court
for the District of Columbia, the Justice Department in September submitted
a motion requesting dismissal of the case, largely on procedural grounds.
The court agreed the next month.

The post Trump Signs Bill Continuing To Block D.C. From Legalizing
Recreational Marijuana Sales As Advocates Await Rescheduling Action
appeared first on Marijuana Moment.