Drug War Issues
Politics & Advocacy
The city of Washington, DC, is a marijuana policy hothouse these days. It's expanding its medical marijuana program, it has a new decriminalization bill set to go into effect Thursday with House Republicans trying to stop it, it has a marijuana possession and cultivation legalization initiative poised to make the November ballot, and it has legislation that would allow for the taxation and regulation of marijuana commerce already pending before the city council. Now, the White House is weighing in too.
DC's decriminalization effort has clearly caught the attention of House Republicans -- one of whom, Rep. Andy Harris (R-MD), introduced an amendment to the DC appropriations bill to block its implementation. That amendment has already won a House committee vote.
Late last month, the House Appropriations Committee adopted Harris's amendment. If included in the 2015 federal budget, the rider would block the District from carrying out any law, rule or regulation to legalize or otherwise reduce criminal penalties for marijuana.
That has sparked irate reactions from both DC elected officials and advocates alike.
"These Members violated their own principles of limited government by using the power of the federal government to dictate to a local government how it can use its own local funds," DC Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton said in a statement after the vote. "They apparently could not keep their own states from decriminalizing marijuana, so they have turned to a district where they are not accountable to the citizens to do what they couldn't convince their own states to do. Their constituents may be surprised to learn that their Members are spending their time interfering with the local laws of another district instead of devoting their time to issues affecting their districts and the nation."
"That Congressman Andy Harris would try to kill DC's efforts to stop arresting people for marijuana possession is beyond disturbing," said Dr. Malik Burnett, DC policy manager for the Drug Policy Alliance (DPA). "This amendment is an affront to the District's right to home rule, while ensuring that thousands of District residents continue to be arrested and suffer the collateral consequences associated with a criminal record. Congress should be following DC's example and end racist marijuana arrest policies, instead of defying the will of the people and reversing their decision."
DC Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton sticks up for her constitutents. (house.gov)
"It's become a sad tradition that members of Congress with no ties to the District use their outdated, undemocratic and unjust authority over the District's budget to further their own political and personal agenda," Gray said in a pre-4th of July statement.
Councilmember and mayoral candidate David Catania even stormed Harris's DC office after the vote demanding to discuss his efforts to block the District from implementing decrim. Harris wasn't there.
"I'm here to address what has become a congressional pastime, which is interfering in the local affairs of the District of Columbia," Catania said at the time.
And now, the effort to block the District from implementing decrim -- or any other marijuana reforms -- has caught the attention of the White House, which yesterday slammed it in no uncertain terms.
"[T]he Administration strongly opposes the language in the bill preventing the District from using its own local funds to carry out locally-passed marijuana policies, which again undermines the principles of States' rights and of District home rule," the White House said in a statement of administration policy on the Financial Services and General Government Administration Act of 2015, which contains appropriations for DC. "Furthermore, the language poses legal challenges to the Metropolitan Police Department's enforcement of all marijuana laws currently in force in the District."
(The statement of administration policy also criticized Congress for including a ban on the funding of needle exchanges in the District, as well as language restricting the District's ability to provide abortion services.)
The White House wasn't the only group trying to send a signal to Congress yesterday. The DC city council passed a pair of emergency resolutions opposing Rep. Harris's effort to use congressional oversight to block the District from spending any of its locally-raised revenues to enact marijuana reform.
Harris's amendment would, if passed by the Congress, also block the District from enacting the results of the looming marijuana possession and cultivation legalization initiative, which is all but certain to make the November ballot after organizers handed in more than double the number of signatures needed to qualify. And it would block the District from implementing the putative legislative follow-up to the initiative, which would allow for taxed and regulated marijuana commerce in the District.
But that amendment still has not passed the House, let alone the Senate, and now, the Obama administration has made clear that it does not approve of it, either. That puts the administration on the side of the District, its voters (who consistently approve of marijuana legalization in polls), and its elected officials. House and Senate Republicans would be up against a city united against their interference in the District's domestic affairs, backed by a president who agrees with the District. While the Republicans are always eager to pick a fight with the president, this could be one fight they think twice about.
Permission to Reprint: This content is licensed under a modified Creative Commons Attribution license. Content of a purely educational nature in Drug War Chronicle appear courtesy of DRCNet Foundation, unless otherwise noted.
Comments
Don't Be Fooled By "Deciminalization"!
Don't be fooled by "decriminalization" because citizens are still going to be treated like common criminals for marijuana under it. This is what Kevin Sabet wants. Citizens will STILL be forced to the dangerous black market and a shady illegal street drug dealer to purchase their marijuana. Getting caught buying it is STILL a crime they will arrest and jail you for. Then, they will also FORCE you to mandatory rehab, and if you don't comply, guess what? JAILTIME!
No thanks!
Also, we will still be wasting our tax dollars sending police around to ticket marijuana users and wasting police manpower and resources.
Instead of allowing our police the time, manpower and resources to protect us all from real, dangerous criminals who actually commit crimes with victims and pose a real threat to society.
Why else do you think they are so EAGER to "decriminalize", instead of LEGALIZE?
Don't Let'em Fool You!!!
If you can't purchase marijuana legally, then it isn't legal.
This will not suffice! Getting caught purchasing marijuana is still considered a serious "drug deal" and you will be prosecuted for it!
DEMAND FULL MARIJUANA LEGALIZATION NATIONWIDE!
Don't Be Fooled By Deciminalization!
Don't be fooled by "decriminalization" because citizens are still going to be treated like common criminals for marijuana under it. This is what Kevin Sabet wants. Citizens will STILL be forced to the dangerous black market and a shady illegal street drug dealer to purchase their marijuana. Getting caught buying it is STILL a crime they will arrest and jail you for. Then, they will also FORCE you to mandatory rehab, and if you don't comply, guess what? JAILTIME!
No thanks!
Also, we will still be wasting our tax dollars sending police around to ticket marijuana users and wasting police manpower and resources.
Instead of allowing our police the time, manpower and resources to protect us all from real, dangerous criminals who actually commit crimes with victims and pose a real threat to society.
Why else do you think they are so EAGER to "decriminalize", instead of LEGALIZE?
Don't Let'em Fool You!!!
If you can't purchase marijuana legally, then it isn't legal.
This will not suffice! Getting caught purchasing marijuana is still considered a serious "drug deal" and you will be prosecuted for it!
DEMAND FULL MARIJUANA LEGALIZATION NATIONWIDE!
Organize for Harris' defeat
Harris' district isn't far from DC. How about flooding the district with DC citizens registering voters and making sure that the opposition makes it to the polls? No matter how gerrymandered the district may be, if EVERY voter in opposition makes it to the polls, Harris will be retired in the Fall. Registration and participation can overturn each and every one of these forces opposed to Democracy. There are no safe districts.
Brian Kelly, you aren't
Brian Kelly, you aren't entirely wrong, but you are wrong on a lot and it's silly to fight decriminalization just because legalization is better. Decriminalization is still better than the status quo. Possession of less than two ounces would be a "violation" like a traffic ticket rather than an actual crime. People will not be arrested for it. They'll just be cited and have to pay a small fine and will have no criminal record from that.
And where did you get this notion that everyone caught with marijuana in DC will have to undergo some sort of drug treatment, mandatory rehab? That's not part of the proposed law. Yes, selling would still be a crime, but buying? Show us the law making buying pot a crime. Possessing it is a crime under current law, but will only be a "violation" like a traffic ticket if the feds don't kill this law. So if somebody gets caught buying pot they're going to get their pot seized and get a ticket with a small fine. That's way better than a criminal conviction.
Don't waste your time fighting this. This is a step in the right direction. Keep fighting for legalization. That's much better use of your time.
Brian Kelly, you aren't
Brian Kelly, you aren't entirely wrong, but you are wrong on a lot and it's silly to fight decriminalization just because legalization is better. Decriminalization is still better than the status quo. Possession of less than two ounces would be a "violation" like a traffic ticket rather than an actual crime. People will not be arrested for it. They'll just be cited and have to pay a small fine and will have no criminal record from that.
And where did you get this notion that everyone caught with marijuana in DC will have to undergo some sort of drug treatment, mandatory rehab? That's not part of the proposed law. Yes, selling would still be a crime, but buying? Show us the law making buying pot a crime. Possessing it is a crime under current law, but will only be a "violation" like a traffic ticket if the feds don't kill this law. So if somebody gets caught buying pot they're going to get their pot seized and get a ticket with a small fine. That's way better than a criminal conviction.
Don't waste your time fighting this. This is a step in the right direction. Keep fighting for legalization. That's much better use of your time.
Do we REALLY need to post
Do we REALLY need to post that stuff twice???
Republican logic
If the Republicans are so sure that DC's proposed policy is a disaster, they should leave Democrat DC do it and, if it turns out a disaster, the Republicans can justifiably point the finger and crow "We told you so. Vote Republican!"
$25 fine???
While I haven't read any part of the bill that was passed,I can read that there's a $25 dollar fine?While this is better than prison it is not reform.It's just a money grab at the front end instead of a back end collection on lawyer fees and court fines and all the various parasitical agencies that bleed the country dry to puff up the coffers of every faction of law enforcement.I understand that the politicians are so far removed from reality that they actually think this is a reform bill.I hope there is more to what's being fought over here than making cannabis a civil crime instead of a federal offence.It should not now,nor ever have been a legal issue to begin with.Neither should any of the natural drugs that are simply a plant product.Once called herbal remedies.Our society has deteriorated into near anarchy over the issue of personal freedom where drug use is considered.A cheap and easy to attain product has been blown into a money making machine for organised crime.The like hasn't been seen since the twenties with the prohibition of alcohol.The drug issue just took longer to explode as it was always considered a "colored" crime.Look who's using it now.The drug war has been a multi billion dollar commercial for the use and abuse of all drugs.It's been successful beyond anyone's imagination.The only places that have seen a drop in drug use are the countries that have stopped the persecution and made drugs either legal or a health issue.Once young people are allowed to see the issue as a disease instead of something dark and forbidden.They stop using it and actually pity the people that do,as they now do in Portugal.Of course the US can't learn from Portugal?That would be too easy and make too much sense.The one thing the drug war is not about is common sense.
Add new comment