D.C. challenges Congress to halt marijuana legalization in nation’s capital
By Aaron C. Davis January 13 at 4:50 PM
The District of Columbia defied the new Republican Congress on Tuesday, challenging the House and Senate to either block or let stand a voter-approved ballot measure to legalize marijuana in the nation’s capital.
D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson (D) sent the measure to Capitol Hill, starting the clock on a 30-day review window that Congress has used only three times in 40 years to quash a local D.C. law.
If Congress or President Obama do not act to block it, the ballot measure permitting possession of up to two ounces and home cultivation of pot could become law in the District as early as March.
Another possible scenario, however, is that Tuesday’s move would launch a rocky year of legal battles — and thrust a final decision on pot legalization in the city into the hands of federal courts.
Mendelson took the provocative step of sending the marijuana measure to Congress despite a federal spending bill passed last month and signed by the president that explicitly prohibits the District from enacting new laws to reduce penalties for drug possession.
Conservative House Republicans boasted at the time that the paragraph tucked into the 900-page, $1 trillion spending bill halted the city from following Colorado and Washington state into a closely watched experiment to legalize marijuana.
“That issue has come and gone,” said Rep. Jason Chaffetz last month. The Utah Republican is the new chairman of the powerful committee with oversight of D.C. issues and is an outspoken opponent of marijuana legalization. In a December interview, Chaffetz warned that any attempt by the District to move forward on legalization would be “ill-advised and fruitless.”
But Mendelson — backed by the new mayor, Muriel E. Bowser (D) — vowed to carry out the will of the 7 in 10 D.C. voters who supported Initiative 71.
Mendelson, Bowser and Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D), the District’s nonvoting House member, said they have a solid legal basis for pressing forward with implementing the ballot measure. The spending bill, they said, prohibits the District from using taxpayer funds to “enact” new laws that loosen drug restrictions — but not to implement official acts.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/dc-politi...mp;hpid=z9
By Aaron C. Davis January 13 at 4:50 PM
The District of Columbia defied the new Republican Congress on Tuesday, challenging the House and Senate to either block or let stand a voter-approved ballot measure to legalize marijuana in the nation’s capital.
D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson (D) sent the measure to Capitol Hill, starting the clock on a 30-day review window that Congress has used only three times in 40 years to quash a local D.C. law.
If Congress or President Obama do not act to block it, the ballot measure permitting possession of up to two ounces and home cultivation of pot could become law in the District as early as March.
Another possible scenario, however, is that Tuesday’s move would launch a rocky year of legal battles — and thrust a final decision on pot legalization in the city into the hands of federal courts.
Mendelson took the provocative step of sending the marijuana measure to Congress despite a federal spending bill passed last month and signed by the president that explicitly prohibits the District from enacting new laws to reduce penalties for drug possession.
Conservative House Republicans boasted at the time that the paragraph tucked into the 900-page, $1 trillion spending bill halted the city from following Colorado and Washington state into a closely watched experiment to legalize marijuana.
“That issue has come and gone,” said Rep. Jason Chaffetz last month. The Utah Republican is the new chairman of the powerful committee with oversight of D.C. issues and is an outspoken opponent of marijuana legalization. In a December interview, Chaffetz warned that any attempt by the District to move forward on legalization would be “ill-advised and fruitless.”
But Mendelson — backed by the new mayor, Muriel E. Bowser (D) — vowed to carry out the will of the 7 in 10 D.C. voters who supported Initiative 71.
Mendelson, Bowser and Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D), the District’s nonvoting House member, said they have a solid legal basis for pressing forward with implementing the ballot measure. The spending bill, they said, prohibits the District from using taxpayer funds to “enact” new laws that loosen drug restrictions — but not to implement official acts.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/dc-politi...mp;hpid=z9
