If the Mayor of the District of Columbia gets her way, tourists will come to Washington, DC for the monuments, the marbled halls of government, the museums, the historical landmarks, the cherry blossoms…and the legal cannabis.

DC Mayor Muriel Bowser is spearheading a move to legalize cannabis in the District. The Safe Cannabis Sales Act of 2021, introduced February 26, would legalize recreational marijuana sales in the District for people 21 and older. The proposed bill would impose a hefty 17% sales tax on pot sales.

Bowser’s bill also seeks to alleviate the damage of previous marijuana law enforcement actions, particularly on low-income communities of color.

“Through this legislation, we can fulfill the will of DC voters, reduce barriers for entering the cannabis industry, and invest in programs that serve residents and neighborhoods hardest hit by the criminalization of marijuana,” Bowser said in a press release. See the following tweet:

The move in the nation’s capital is likely to influence other state and local governments. With Democrats in control of the White House and both chambers of Congress, it’s unlikely that the federal government will stand in DC’s way, which it has done in the past on a range of issues through appropriations bills. It doesn’t matter what DC passes, if the District’s overlords in Congress block funding for it.

A long-time goal…

A program to tax and regulate marijuana has long been a goal of DC officials. Residents share the sentiment. In 2014, DC voters passed Initiative 71, which allows adults in DC to grow, possess and gift weed, but not sell it. Since 2014, Congress has prevented DC from allowing the sale of marijuana by attaching a provision to every DC appropriations bill that prevents the District from allocating funds to legalize or regulate marijuana sales.

DC officials and Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton renewed their campaign for recreational cannabis sales in 2018, when Democrats seized control of the House of Representatives. That year, Mayor Bowser again submitted a tax-and-regulation bill to the District Council.

The 2021 version of the bill entails additional provisions. Notably, it seeks to reverse the discriminatory effects of the War on Drugs on economically disadvantaged communities and racial minorities. The bill would expunge cannabis-related offenses from individual’s criminal records.

The proposed bill also would earmark sales tax revenue, roughly $1 million in fiscal year 2023 and $2 million in years afterwards, into assisting “social equity applicants and returning citizens” to launch entrepreneurial start-ups. By contrast, Bowser’s previous marijuana legalization bill in 2019 directed all sales tax revenue to affordable housing programs.

Bowser’s 2021 bill emphasizes job and business creation. It creates a new license category for microbusinesses (defined as cultivators of fewer than 300 plants at a time) and third-party “social equity” delivery services. The latter would allow home delivery of marijuana by people who meet certain income and residency requirements.

Read This Story: Marijuana: The Job Creation Champ

The measure would require cannabis vendors to get their products tested by an independent facility to track their potency and check for contaminants.

If Bowser’s cannabis bill passes the Council this year, and if Congress doesn’t block DC from paying for it (an unlikely event with Democrats in charge of the House and Senate), sales of marijuana could start in the District of Columbia in October 2022.

Meanwhile, adjacent to the District, lawmakers in Virginia sent a marijuana legalization bill to the desk of Gov. Ralph Northam (D) in February. Northam has indicated that he would sign the bill, which applies to recreational pot.

On the other side of DC, lawmakers in Maryland are also considering legalizing recreational cannabis this year. Both Virginia and Maryland already have legalized medical marijuana to varying degrees.

As recent events in the DC region make clear, there’s a gold rush taking place in the marijuana market right now. In fact, a group of ordinary individual investors are earning up to $55,362 a year from one company’s marijuana profit-sharing “program.”

As marijuana increasingly joins the consumer mainstream, the company’s fortunes are poised to soar. For details about this unique program, click here.

John Persinos is the editorial director of Investing Daily. He also writes the twice-weekly e-letter Marijuana Investing Daily. To subscribe to John’s video channel, follow this link. Send your questions or comments to: mailbag@investingdaily.com.