When Washington D.C. residents voted to legalize adult-use cannabis in 2014, the District was in position to become the East Coast\u2019s first bastion of full-scale recreational legalization. And then Congress stepped in. <\/p>\n
Because D.C. lacks statehood and is funded by the federal budget, the city is also at the whim of Congressional oversight into non-government city functions. And so for the past four years and change, Capitol Hill has continuously blocked Washington<\/u><\/a> from establishing a system for the legal sale and taxation of adult-use pot.<\/p>\n Now, according to the <\/u>Washington Post<\/em><\/u><\/a>, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser is pushing back against the Congressional bud blockade, and announced a new piece of legislation to legalize adult-use cannabis sales. <\/p>\n \u201cWe want to be able to regulate, we want to be able to make sure we are collecting our fair share in taxes, we want to invest those taxes in ways that affect communities that have been disproportionately affected [by prohibition], and we want to train and hire D.C. residents,\u201d Mayor Bowser told the Post<\/em> this week during an interview conducted at a local medical marijuana cultivation center.<\/p>\n The Safe Cannabis Sales Act will promote equity by ensuring that the benefits of this new system \u2013 from jobs to revenue \u2013 go to communities that have been disproportionately hurt by marijuana criminalization. #SafeCannabisDC<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/2ZPEItuhCu<\/a><\/p>\n — Mayor Muriel Bowser (@MayorBowser) May 3, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n