-So, DC has some of the strangest marijuana laws
in the country.
Here it's legal to posses marijuana, to use marijuana,
but it's not legal to buy marijuana or to sell marijuana.
So that's created a strange quandary
for elected officials and police in this city.
In 2014, advocates have qualified a measure
on the DC ballot to decriminalize marijuana
and allow possession in small amounts.
It passed overwhelmingly.
More than 7 in 10 voters approved it,
and it took effect into law,
but it was quickly derailed by Republicans in Congress
at the time trying to intervene
and putting measures in place to prohibit the city
from regulating the sale of marijuana.
The anti-DC marijuana provisions in the federal budget
were pushed by Republican Congressman
Andy Harris of Maryland.
Now he's a member of the minority
of the House of Representatives,
and the Democrats, who lead the House,
say that they oppose the anti-marijuana provision.
The problem is you have this quasi-legal marijuana market.
People are purchasing marijuana.
They've always been purchasing marijuana
regardless to the legality of it,
but the city doesn't have a mechanism for, for example,
enforcing testing requirements saying the marijuana sold in DC
must be inspected for pesticides or other contaminants.
And we also have situations where people are trying
to get around marijuana laws by purchasing, let's say,
a t-shirt or a drawstring bag for an unusual amount of money,
and it comes with a complementary marijuana gift.
This is legally questionable,
but this is the kind of situation that people are in
where you can't legally buy it,
but you can legally use it, but you have to get it somehow.
So, in late April, Mayor Muriel Bowser of DC
introduced her own legislation
that would regulate the sale of marijuana.
This would allow the existing
medical marijuana companies in DC
to have the first bite at growing marijuana
and selling marijuana for recreational purposes.
-We must act now to show that we are serious
and that we are certain
and that we have devised a regime that supports activity
already happening here in the District of Columbia,
but does it in a responsible way.
So today, I'm excited to announce
that we are introducing the Safe Cannabis Sales Act of 2019.
-The Mayor's plan involves
legalizing marijuana dispensaries
and then imposing a 17% tax on that marijuana products,
and then using the proceeds from that tax
to fund affordable housing programs in the city,
where gentrification is particularly harsh
and where housing prices have been on the rise.
Even though possession of marijuana is legal,
people are still being arrested
and cited with marijuana-related charges in the city,
so we still have significant racial disparities in citations
for public consumption of marijuana or possession
with the intent to distribute,
which hasn't been decriminalized in the city.
So recently, DC police have announced
that they've changed their policy
for dealing with public consumption issues.
Instead of arresting people and taking them to jail,
the police leadership says they're now
instead sending citations.
So the Council's talking about doing hearings,
going through the whole legislative process
to figure out what's the best way to regulate
and legalize recreational marijuana,
but it won't be able to take effect
until the issue in Congress is resolved.
So right now, we don't know when the next opportunity is
to take out the anti-marijuana provisions
from the federal budget.
It may not be until after the 2020 presidential election,
but if in the time being,
Mayor Bowser and the members of the DC Council
want to get the ball rolling on legalizing marijuana,
want to have the debates about the best way to do it,
how much you should tax a product,
who can get licenses to grow
and sell it, where these stores can go,
they want to have these discussions now
so that whenever the federal budget issue is dealt with,
the city can get rolling.