DC
Appropriations
Subcommittee
Holds
Hearings
in
Response
to
Veto
10/1/99
Ted Bridges, Drug Policy Foundation, [email protected] Following the president's veto Tuesday (9/28) of the District of Columbia appropriations bill (HR 2587), the House Subcommittee on DC Appropriations held a hearing on Wednesday called "Enforcing Drug Laws in the District of Columbia." Among the reasons for President Clinton's veto were two restrictive social policy riders added to the bill on the House floor on July 29. One amendment, introduced by Rep. Todd Tiarht (R-KS), would prohibit the District from spending its own money on a syringe exchange program. Another, introduced by Rep. Bob Barr (R-GA), would ban medical marijuana under District law, regardless of a voter-approved 1998 ballot referendum, Initiative 59. Rep. Ernest Istook (R-OK) was unequivocal in his denunciation of the President's veto. In his statement, Rep. Istook characterized medical marijuana initiatives "a deliberate first step in a strategy to legalize all drugs." Eleanor Holmes Norton (D), the District's nonvoting delegate to the House of Representatives, defended Clinton's veto as an issue of home rule. "Whether or not the voters' decision was wise is another issue," said Norton. She charged that to imply the District's medical marijuana initiative is a front for legalizers is an unacceptable attack on DC voters. Also in support of the veto was Rep. James P. Moran (D-VA), who ardently defended the legitimacy of medical marijuana. Moran said that the topic of this hearing properly belonged before the House Judiciary Committee, not Appropriations. He added that the hearings did give him a chance to address medical marijuana, which he supported. Moran introduced last-minute witness Keith B. Vines, who is an assistant district attorney for San Francisco and is also a medical marijuana user. Speaking last, Vines detailed how he lost 45 pounds due to the appetite loss he experienced resulting from his battle with AIDS. When physician-prescribed Marinol failed to improve his condition, his doctor suggested smoking marijuana. "It worked," said Vines. "I don't like being stoned, but I do like being alive." Congressional Republicans vowed to keep the riders in the DC appropriations bill in spite of the President's veto. Meanwhile, Barr introduced a new bill (H.R. 2959), which would prohibit the DC medical marijuana initiative from taking effect.
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