Advocates prepare for vote to remove amendment on House floor

WCL News — Normally the House Appropriations Committee tries to rein in government spending, but on June 25, 2014 it passed an amendment to the 2015 Financial Services and General Government Appropriations bill intended to force the District of Columbia to continue wasting money on marijuana prohibition.

The bill is an attack on democracy and local control as it seeks to block Washington DC officials from implementing its recently passed law decriminalizing the possession of marijuana in the nation's capitol. It also has the chilling potential to end the District's medical marijuana program. The amendment, offered by Rep. Andy Harris (R-MD), passed by a vote of 28-21.

Apparently the Republican lawmaker is determined to preserve Big Government and fiscal waste as the legacy of his term in office to prop up the Drug War budget, a position that even most Tea Party extremists no longer support.

The District of Columbia City Council passed a law in March 2014 replacing its criminal penalties for possession of less than an ounce of marijuana with a nominal $25 fine, saving money, reducing racial disparities and bringing much-needed revenue to the city's coffers. The policy is scheduled to take effect July 17, a timeline that is now in doubt. The law was largely a response to an ACLU report showing that prohibition is discriminatory in that blacks in the District of Columbia are roughly eight times more likely to be arrested for marijuana than whites, despite similar use rates.

The District's medical marijuana law is the product of a 1998 initiative. It was not implemented until 2010 due to a provision in federal law, similar to the amendment offered by Rep. Harris, which was not repealed until 2009.

The full House of Representatives passed an amendment on May 30 aimed at preventing the Department of Justice from enforcing federal law against patients and providers in compliance with state medical marijuana laws. The Marijuana Policy Project and other advocates will seek a floor vote to remove this amendment from the bill when it proceeds to the House floor.

"The District of Columbia wisely decided to use stop wasting its own resources enforcing ineffective and racially biased laws and to allow those with serious illnesses whose doctors recommend it to use medical marijuana," said Federal Policies Director Dan Riffle of the Marijuana Policy Project. "Unfortunately, unlike every state in America that gets to determine its own laws, Washington, DC laws are reviewed by Congress where Washington, DC residents have no voting representatives.

"Marijuana is significantly less harmful than alcohol, and polls clearly show most Americans want to see it treated that way. We'll do everything we can to restore democracy in DC and ensure this regressive amendment is rejected when it is considered by the full House. Mr. Harris's antiquated, unscientific views on marijuana should be his constituents' problem, not the District of Columbia's."

The Marijuana Policy Project, the nation's largest marijuana policy organization, has been responsible for changing most state-level marijuana laws since 2000. — West Coast Leaf News Service