Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser announced Thursday that she will introduce legislation to legalize recreational marijuana use and sales in the nation’s capital.
Marijuana has been decriminalized in Washington since 2014 and residents can currently grow and possess small amounts of the pot, but Bowser’s bill would go further and allow individuals over the age of 21 to legally purchase the drug. She wants to impose a 17% sales tax, with some of the revenue going toward housing in the District.
“We 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, and we want to train and hire D.C. residents,” Bowser told the Washington Post.
“We are not going to be a marijuana destination,” Bowser added. “We will not be promoting it. We want D.C. residents to be able to have the choice to buy legally, and we also want to drive out the illegal market, which we know can promote violence in our communities.”
There is a bit of a legal issue at play, though. There is a provision in the federal budget that prohibits the District from enacting full legalization — an issue that would have to be resolved during the next iteration of a spending bill.
In 2015, Washington’s District Attorney Karl Racine told the D.C. Council that even discussing the matter could land city employees in legal trouble, but Bowser doesn’t believe that is true. She said that the Council can get the ball rolling on the issue in anticipation of Congress dropping the provision.
“That won’t stop our introduction, and it certainly won’t stop the Council’s discussion and action,” said Bowser.
Ten states have already legalized recreational use of the drug: California, Oregon, Michigan, Alaska, Nevada, Colorado, Maine, Vermont, Massachusetts, and Michigan.
