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It took nearly 15 years after voters approved medical marijuana for it to become available in the District of Columbia, but the next major change to pot laws in the nation’s capital is on the fast track.
The D.C. Council is poised to approve a bill that would decriminalize possession of small amounts of pot, and Democratic Mayor Vincent Gray announced last month that he supports it. He could sign the bill into law as early as January.
Some activists want the city to go further by legalizing, taxing and regulating marijuana as Colorado and Washington state do, and they’re considering a ballot initiative if the council doesn’t take that step.
It’s a big change from a year ago, when there was no medical marijuana in the capital and elected officials were not talking about relaxing recreational pot laws. Now, there are three tightly regulated marijuana dispensaries in the city, although there aren’t many patients yet.
City leaders have long been cautious about pot, in part because Congress has the final say on what’s legal in the district. But with 17 states having some form of decriminalization and the Justice Department taking a hands-off approach to legalization in Colorado and Washington state, city leaders think Congress won’t be interested in fighting that battle.
The new sense of urgency has been fueled in part by two studies released this year that found large racial disparities in marijuana arrests in the city. Blacks were eight times more likely to be arrested than whites in the district in 2010, the American Civil Liberties Union found, and 91 percent of those arrested that year were black. About half of the city’s 632,000 residents are African-American.
“We have hundreds of young black men, black boys, being locked up, for simple possession of a couple bags of marijuana,” said Democratic Councilmember Marion Barry, one of the bill’s sponsors. Congress has disapproved of only three pieces of legislation passed by the D.C. Council, the last in 1991. A more frequent tactic for members who disapprove of policies in the heavily Democratic district is to insert provisions in the city’s appropriations bill. That’s what then-Rep. Bob Barr, R-Ga., did in 1999 to block the city from spending money on its medical marijuana program, which district voters approved the previous year.
The rider remained on the city’s budget until 2009. After a lengthy regulatory process, medical marijuana became available this year.
Even with decriminalization, the district is not about to become a pot haven. Possession would still be barred on federal land, which encompasses more than 20 percent of the city.
And federal law enforcement officers – such as the U.S. Park Police or Capitol Police – can make arrests for violations of federal law on local property.
DC Ready to OK Pot Possession
Article by Ben Nuckols for the Associated Press via The Journal Gazette