Pubdate: Wed, 08 Jan 2014
Source: Washington Times (DC)
Copyright: 2014 The Washington Times, LLC.
Contact:  http://www.washingtontimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/492
Author: Andrea Noble

D.C. MAY VOTE ON LEGALIZING MARIJUANA

Proposal Allows Up to Six Plants Per Household

Activists in the District plan to submit an initiative by week's end 
that would put marijuana legalization on the ballot in the nation's 
capital in November - making the city one of a handful of 
jurisdictions poised to ask voters to consider the issue this year.

The proposal that is expected to be submitted to the D.C. Board of 
Elections would allow residents to legally grow up to six marijuana 
plants per household and possess and transfer up to an ounce of the 
drug without penalty.

Submission of the ballot language is just the beginning of an arduous 
process that will require supporters, who have formed a campaign 
committee and recruited volunteers, to collect thousands of 
signatures and persuade voters to approve the measure.

Polling last year shows D.C. residents, who 15 years ago 
overwhelmingly passed a referendum authorizing medical marijuana, 
support legalization in large numbers.

An April survey conducted by Public Policy Polling gauged support for 
legalizing the drug at 63 percent.

Getting the issue on the ballot would put the District in line with 
Alaska, Oregon and California, where legalization initiatives also 
are underway.

All three states have defeated previous ballot initiatives on 
legalization, but with Colorado opening the nation's first 
recreational marijuana dispensaries Jan. 1 and Washington set to 
begin legally selling marijuana this year, activists think the tide 
could turn on the East Coast as well.

Unlike in Colorado, the D.C. initiative wouldn't allow shops to sell 
marijuana in the city. The District's ballot initiative would ban 
proposals that require an appropriation of money - a mandate that 
organizer Adam Eidinger said prevents him from including a regulatory 
or sales component.

"We're trying to preserve the consumer's right to possess it and to 
use it," said Mr. Eidinger, who is mounting the D.C. Cannabis 
Campaign through a group called DCMJ.

Because of the restrictions, the ability to legalize the open sale 
and regulation of marijuana in the city hinges on passage of a law by 
the D.C. Council.

But elected officials across the country have been slow to warm to 
changes in drug policy, making legalization through a ballot 
initiative a more likely reality than legislation, said Bill Piper, 
director of national affairs for the Drug Policy Alliance.

"Generally speaking, the issue has been elected officials are almost 
always behind the people, especially on drug policy," Mr. Piper said.

In the case of medical marijuana, seven states decriminalized use 
through ballot measures before Hawaii became the first state to 
legislatively approve use of the drug in 2000.

"Medical marijuana, as more initiatives passed, there was more of a 
national debate and legislators couldn't ignore it," Mr. Piper said. 
"The debate now, because of Colorado and Washington, has broken out 
and it's going to be very hard for legislators to ignore it."

A CNN/ORC International poll released Monday indicated that 55 
percent of people surveyed nationally said marijuana should be made 
legal, with 44 percent opposing.

D.C. Council member David Grosso introduced a bill last year to 
legalize the possession and sale of marijuana, but the legislation 
has no co-sponsors and has not been scheduled for a hearing.

Mr. Grosso, at-large independent, said he intentionally did not seek 
any co-sponsors for the bill because he didn't want to derail efforts 
underway to pass a bill to decriminalize possession of small amounts 
of marijuana. That bill, which 10 of 13 council members have 
co-sponsored, garnered broad support as lawmakers discussed the 
disproportionate impact drug arrests have on black youths in the city.

Sixteen states have decriminalized marijuana, according to the 
National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. More, 
including Maryland, are expected to consider the issue during 
upcoming legislative sessions.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, this week said he was 
abandoning a bid to decriminalize the drug in the state but will 
pursue making the drug available for medical use.

Mr. Piper said an advantage to D.C. approval of a decriminalization 
bill first is that it would allow council members to spend more time 
vetting regulations for a legalization measure.

"I don't think that the council is hesitant as much as it's a 
complicated issue to set up a regulatory structure," Mr. Piper said. 
"But if the council doesn't act, the people probably will."

Mr. Grosso applauds the grassroots effort to get marijuana 
legalization on the ballot but said legislation through the D.C. 
Council could be more efficient.

"I think it's great they want to put the money into that, but I'm 
more hopeful that we can get this done sooner than that," he said.

He thinks his colleagues will have to be persuaded individually to 
support marijuana legalization. "I think we are up to seven or so 
people I can count on to pass legalization in the District," he said.

Even if adopted by voters, the ballot initiative would have to 
withstand congressional scrutiny. The battle over access to medical 
marijuana, which Congress put on hold for more than a decade, is 
still fresh in the minds of marijuana advocates.

"It's not likely that Congress would veto an initiative that we pass 
here," said Dan Riffle, a spokesman for the Marijuana Policy Project. 
"It is likely that Congress would pass a rider that would obstruct the bill."

D.C. voters supported a medical marijuana program in 1998, but a 
congressional rider known as the Barr Amendment delayed it until 
2009. Rule-making and legislative process to govern the program 
delayed implementation another four years, with the first 
dispensaries opening last summer.

Some worry that a failed attempt at legalizing recreational marijuana 
use could do irreparable harm to the city's medical marijuana 
program, which officials are still working to expand.

"The only concern you have is, if they take any steps to prevent 
legalization, that they would use language broad enough to prevent 
use of medical marijuana here," said Mr. Riffle, whose group, along 
with the Drug Policy Alliance, sponsored the April PPP poll that was 
financed by Dr. Bronner's Magic Soaps.

After a shift in the public's attitude about marijuana usage and 
increased publicity for D.C. autonomy, Mr. Eidinger said, activists 
could seize on any congressional opposition as an opportunity.

"If all that gets stopped by a congressional block, an appropriations 
rider, it's still a win because it will become a national story at 
that point," Mr. Eidinger said. "It would be a rallying cry for the 
statehood movement in the city."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom