Is DC about to legalize Cannabis? (2025 Edition)
A little over a year ago, during one of the annual bouts of DC and Congress using the Harris Rider as a bargaining chip in the budget battle, I wrote a piece for Cannabitch about the implications of removal of the rider for DC’s cannabis markets. At the time, we had a bit of faith that Democrats may have finally nixed the Harris Rider, which would allow DC to use federal money for their recreational cannabis program like every other state gets to. Just like every year, these talks were quickly stifled as soon as Democrats found something they wanted to keep in the bill and sold away our chances once again, and little did we know how much this decision would haunt us just a year later. This should not be read as support for Republican policies, because now in 2025, the situation has become much more dire, with increased federal enforcement, which has seemingly set enforcement back about a decade. We’re no longer in an age of hoping and praying our gray market gets the green light for a gold rush in the white market. We’ve reverted back to a time where peoples’ lives and liberties are on the line.
President Trump announces changes to DC law enforcement flanked by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Attorney General Pam Bondi. credit: Andrew Caballero-Reynolds
In one fell swoop, on Aug. 11, President Trump announced, along with the Department of Homeland Security, Department of Justice and Park Police, a commitment to increased enforcement via the DC National Guard with the potential for involvement by Department of Defense. The President announced Attorney General Pam Bondi would be running MPD in the interim, in the televised announcement, before the change was public within the department. Previously, and for the last ten years, DC has been a safe haven for cannabis on the East Coast. Despite no recreational/adult use market because of the aforementioned Harris Rider, DC had a vibrant craft cultivation community, a relatively lax standard for enforcement that meant nobody would go to prison for smoking weed, as well as a booming event scene before COVID.
Less than 24 hours after the announcement, enforcement in the DC area has kicked up to the most visible level since 2015. In the time since President Trump declared a state of emergency that allows Attorney General Pam Bondi to use MPD for “federal purposes,” the presence of law enforcement has sharply increased. “Feds and DC Metro deff rolling around in unmarked cars. Stopping and watching out for anything,” said Drue Downs, a local artist that works at one of DC’s licensed medical dispensaries, in a local industry group chat. “I was charging my puffco in car. Cop pulled up next to me. Said he saw flashing light. Just wanted check on me to make sure I was ok. Yeah right. Im paralell[sic] parked w lights on. Ready pull outa work.”
A screencap from MaiFlower’s TikTok video showing three plainclothes officers arresting someone smoking weed in an unmarked car
Downs also shared an incident where a friend was followed to their destination by an unmarked vehicle and two squad cars, as well as shared watching videos online of other enforcement incidents. One incident that was documented included three plain clothes Park Police officers arresting one man for smoking in a park, which TikToker MaiFlower reported what she categorized as a kidnapping to ABC7 as being exceptionally unusual.
A promotional image from the Granny Za’s website, one of the few stores that made it from I71 gifting shop to legal dispensary under MCAA
What this means for DC’s local cannabis scenes is unclear. The federal government already tried to swipe at the medical program by challenging DC issuing licenses for retail locations with a 400 ft distance away from schools rather than 1000 ft which is the federal standard, but this challenge was unsuccessful. The DC Alcoholic Beverage and Cannabis Administration (ABCA) has already been earnestly enforcing Mayor Muriel Bowser’s mandate to close unlicensed cannabis stores and licensed stores caught selling products from outside the DC medical system. But this all comes as the President Trump and allies have signaled he will continue the push by the Biden Administration to reschedule cannabis to Schedule 3.
This change in enforcement also comes as the aggregate of crime in DC continues on the same downward trend spanning more than 30 years of most major cities. DC may be behind in curbing violent crime since pre-2019 levels compared to other cities, but crime is still down 3% this year compared to pre-2019 levels, which flatly rebukes the Administration’s claim that crime is at historic highs, according to Council on Criminal Justice. Mayor Bowser claims her hands are tied on the matter as the exception to the DC Home Rule Act gives the Executive broad power for 30 days, and it’s unclear what she can actually do to fight the federal takeover. What is clear is if the feds keep acting with this Guilianni-esque guideline of policing, the next 30 days (maybe longer) will set us back to pre-2015 enforcement policy.
Operators have also over the years across the board have expressed fears in Instagram comments and posts on X/Twitter that as soon as Schedule 3 happens, all home cultivation will become criminalized and all production automatically consolidated. But the policy precedent of decriminalized cultivation at the state level under more stringent Schedule 1 regulation doesn’t seem like it could get squashed at Schedule 3. These fall in concert with concerns of expanding enforcement that would ostensibly roll back protections offered by loopholes in the 2018 Farm Bill that allow seeds, “hemp,” and “THCA” to be sold in most states; effectively an expansion of state gray markets.
The big takeaway from almost a decade in DC with legalized possession, transfer and adult use is that the District will keep getting the short end of the stick for as long as it remains a territory and not a state. Most assume that DC will get recreational sales as soon as rescheduling happens, as the District will be allowed to spend money on programs for controlled substances that are not Schedule 1, but there’s always the other side of the coin that argues the wording of the Harris Rider would shift the goal posts for as long as the federal government controls the DC budget, and the police will be mobilized behind whichever sycophants bark the orders.
