Washington, DC Mayor Muriel Bowser has introduced a plan to allow for the opening of recreational marijuana dispensaries in the District, five years after voting to legalize marijuana use.
The holdup in the opening of such dispensaries has been hampered by a conflict to implement a way to tax and regulate the sales of such marijuana and federal legislation which still deems marijuana a Schedule I substance.
Mayor Bowser appeared at a medical marijuana dispensary and unveiled the Safe Cannabis Sales Act of 2019 and urged action to be taken by the federal government to allow the sales of recreational marijuana in the District to proceed.
DC residents voted to allow recreational marijuana in 2014. Since then, the law allows people to consume it, grow it, give it as a gift but does not allow for the sale of it. Mayor Bowser says the gray area in exchanging gifts for marijuana is a public safety hazard since people don't have enough information on what they're getting and the District is missing out on a revenue stream from taxes.
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