Obama's budget would allow pot sales in District of Columbia

BY IAN SIMPSON
WASHINGTON Mon Feb 2, 2015 5:30pm EST

(Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama's $4 trillion budget would allow legal sales of marijuana in the District of Columbia by adding one word - "federal" - to spending language Congress approved last year.

The fiscal 2016 budget blueprint Obama unveiled on Monday bars only federal money from being spent by Washington city officials to legalize or reduce penalties for possession or sale of marijuana and other drugs.

The spending blueprint leaves the District of Columbia free to spend its own money on legalization. Under a $1.1 trillion budget deal in December, Congress had barred the city from spending any funds, including its own, to carry out pot sales.

District of Columbia voters overwhelmingly approved a ballot measure, Initiative 71, in November that would let the U.S. capital join the states of Washington and Colorado in legalizing pot for recreational use.

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