Posted on 03/11/2022 7:52:46 AM PST by RandFan
A GOP-backed ban on weed sales in Washington, D.C., was preserved in a sprawling government funding bill passed by Congress on Thursday, despite opposition from advocates who say the provision overrides the will of the District’s residents years after they voted to legalize marijuana.
The Harris Rider, a provision barring the legalization of recreational marijuana sales in the nation’s capital named after its chief proponent Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md.), sailed through the Senate on late Thursday, a day after passing the House, as part of a larger $1.5 trillion spending omnibus package to fund the government through fiscal year 2022.
Congressional Democrats had pushed to do away with the provision, opting not to include the rider in the government funding bills unveiled by appropriators in both chambers last year. But negotiators say the rider was reinstalled in appropriations after sharp opposition from Republicans.
“We don't like the fact it's there. But it was a choice between providing D.C. and the American people with funding for their big priorities and still having them and not having them,” Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), chair of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government, told The Hill ahead of the vote on Thursday.
“Republicans were the ones who insisted. They were ready to shut down the government,” said Van Hollen, whose panel handles D.C. appropriations.
Harris fought for the rider back in 2014, the same year nearly two-thirds of D.C. voters voted to legalize marijuana for adult use in a ballot initiative.
(Excerpt) Read more at thehill.com ...
This is bull..., give the people their weed! They voted for it, GOP not doing themselves any favors.
Smoking dope makes you stupid, and then you vote Commucrat.
The gop was concerned about pot, but not the trillions in spending? The gop will never be a serious party, they can rot in hell. The r's and d's have destroyed the future.
Anyone know how legal marijuana polls with registered Republicans?
I am guessing close to 50-50.
It is about right the last one I saw
Republicans love losing wars—
The war on poverty....
The war on drugs...
The war against Russia...
Losing is all they know how to do.
The idea that marijuana is harmless is a myth. When it was legalized in my area, everything got worse within a short time: petty crime, homelessness, mental illness, and general social decline that is visible when you walk down the street. Marijuana takes vulnerable people and helps push them over the edge into unproductive lives.
Not necessarily, there are a lot of ex long hair country boys who are as conservatives as they come you know what they say, God Weed and Guns!
Exactly!
Watch the news and listening to the msm will make you stupid. Smoking weed keeps you calm during all the bs.
Amen to that!
Good thing the GOPe did this instead of wasting money and time on the southern border (sarc).
There are literally no benefits to it, only negatives. Stupid people use it, and it also makes users more stupid.
really you seem pretty stupid, how much do you use?
Never have. Would you be honest and say how much use abuse?
thats just silly. I know plenty of repubs and Libertarians both small l and large L that believe adults should make their own choices. my 86 year old mother uses it to treat the symptoms of insomnia due to her parkinsons meds. Edibles have zero side effects and have made her golden years much easier!
Heh. Maybe they are. Permanent loyal opposition is the role. Can't be opposition when you win. But, at the same time, have to make the fight look good/honest.
Government has to prohibit something. That creates a profit center for both sides of the war.
Pot is still a federal offense. Amazing to watch the states “legaize” a federal crime, and the feds keeping this bizzare legal quandry in place - on purpose.
“There are literally no benefits to it, only negatives. Stupid people use it, and it also makes users more stupid”.
It’s been my observation that Americans are getting dumber and dumber
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