GOP-Controlled Senate Committee Warns DC That Marijuana Is Federally Illegal, With ‘Enhanced Penalties’ For Sales Near Schools

Washington DC marijuana sales ban, back again with sharper teeth

File this under the things that won’t die: the Washington DC marijuana sales ban. In a town where power breakfasts taste like burnt coffee and compromise, a Republican-led Senate Appropriations panel just lobbed another reminder across the bar—cannabis is still illegal under federal law, and selling it near schools and playgrounds can mean enhanced penalties. That message rides shotgun in the latest Financial Services and General Government spending package, the kind that arrives with riders nobody ordered but everyone has to chew. The text keeps the familiar prohibition alive, freezing DC’s regulated adult-use market in amber even as the local culture moved on years ago. If you want to read the wonkery yourself, it’s tucked into the committee’s draft, Section 809, over at the official release of the bill text from the Senate Appropriations Committee: FSGG Act. This is cannabis policy by appropriations rider—quiet, procedural, and brutally effective.

Another budget, same rider—plus a school-zone warning

Here’s the shape of it. DC voters legalized possession and home grow a decade ago, but Congress—through the so‑called Harris rider—has repeatedly barred the District from using local funds to build a regulated adult-use market. This new draft doubles down: it blocks federal dollars from legalizing or softening penalties for Schedule I substances and bars DC from spending its own money to do it for recreational cannabis. The report language adds a very pointed nudge on enforcement and zoning: keep dispensaries away from where kids congregate, with federal “enhanced penalties” if you don’t. That’s not subtle; it’s a beacon to prosecutors and a chill for operators trying to stay compliant in a city where the line between legal and not can shift with the weather. Meanwhile, the larger question—whether federal prohibition itself is on borrowed time—hangs over everything like humidity in August. For a glimpse of that front, see the court-watch angle in Supreme Court Schedules Closed-Door Meeting To Discuss Marijuana Companies’ Case Seeking To Overturn Federal Prohibition.

The gray-market maze and the city’s workaround

Because Congress keeps the commercial door bolted, DC does what DC can. Regulators have widened the medical program, trying to vacuum up demand that would otherwise flow to “gifting” storefronts and delivery outfits. It’s a workaround, and like all workarounds, it shows its seams: one federal prosecutor’s letter can rattle an entire corridor; one zoning complaint can set off a chain of inspections. The latest Senate language puts a bright circle around schools, playgrounds, and campuses—exactly the kind of map overlay that turns leases into legal puzzles and expansion plans into dice rolls. The bill’s Section 809 boils down to this:

• No federal funds may be used to legalize or reduce penalties for Schedule I substances (including THC derivatives).
• No DC funds may be used to legalize or reduce penalties for recreational use of those substances.
• Enhanced penalties apply to distribution within 1,000 feet of schools, playgrounds, and other youth-centered properties.

It’s the sort of belt-and-suspenders approach that keeps the city’s cannabis economy suspended between sanctioned and shadowed. And it’s not just DC. Other locales are redrawing the map in real time—New York, for one, has leaned into medical access and home cultivation adjustments, as laid out in New York Governor Signs Bill Expanding State Medical Marijuana Program—With New Rules On Home Grow, Possession Limits And More.

Politics, optics, and the national drift

Democrats on the committee are already shrugging off the bill as a partisan opener, promising a fight in conference. DC’s delegate has long called the rider what it is: Congress micromanaging a local electorate that did its homework and turned it in on time. Yet beyond the Hill’s fluorescent lights, the country keeps edging toward normalization. Florida’s legalization push, signatures stacked and still stacking, is a neon sign in a storm, reflected in Florida Marijuana Campaign Is ‘Confident’ Legalization Measure Will Make Ballot, With 1 Million Signatures Despite State Roadblocks. Culture rushes ahead while policy jogs behind: Thanksgiving’s “cousin walk” made the mainstream, a wink that suggests America is learning to swap a tumbler of bourbon for a measured edible, as noted in As More Americans Choose Marijuana Over Alcohol, Mainstream Media Notices The ‘Cousin Walk’ Thanksgiving Tradition. In that gap—between what people do and what lawmakers allow—the gray market flourishes, enforcement flexes, and patients and consumers navigate a map that changes as often as the headlines.

What this means on the ground

For DC operators and consumers, this isn’t theoretical. It’s leases calibrated around 1,000-foot buffers. It’s compliance departments playing three-dimensional chess with school calendars. It’s patients who just want predictable access without having to decode which door is sanctioned today and suspect tomorrow. The city will keep widening the medical lane where it can, while Congress uses the power of the purse to keep adult-use commerce off-limits. That’s the American cannabis story in miniature: local innovation, federal hesitation, and a market that refuses to sit still. If you prefer your policy explained without the euphemisms—and your flower chosen with the same honesty—pull up a chair and take a look at our shop here: https://thcaorder.com/shop/.