Pubdate: Sat, 01 Nov 2014
Source: Irish Independent (Ireland)
Copyright: Independent Newspapers (Ireland) Ltd
Contact:  http://www.independent.ie/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/213
Author: Raf Sanchez, Daily Telegraph, London
Page: 32

WASHINGTON WILL BE ON A NEW HIGH AS MARIJUANA IS SET TO BECOME LEGAL

THE fresh air of the White House's rose garden may soon be fragrant 
with the smell of cannabis.

On Tuesday, while other Americans are voting for their senators and 
congressman - residents of Washington DC are expected to vote 
overwhelmingly to legalise marijuana.

The referendum would go beyond decriminalisation and give the drug 
full legal status, meaning it may one day be possible to set up a 
dope shop across the street from the halls of Congress.

A yes vote in the US capital would be a hugely symbolic ripple in the 
wave of marijuana liberalisation sweeping America. Recreational 
cannabis is already on sale in Colorado and Washington state  where 
the laws are more relaxed than Amsterdam - and may soon be legal in 
Alaska and Oregon.

Medicinal marijuana, meanwhile, is available in half the country and 
polls show that for the first time a majority of Americans, around 
58pc, support full legalisation nationally.

The momentum for legal cannabis has come largely from the western 
United States, where libertarian instincts still run strong. Voters 
have concluded it is simply not the government's business to stop 
people smoking weed.

But in Washington DC, where half the city's population is black, the 
case for cannabis is being made in terms of racial justice.

Proponents of legal pot argue that existing drug laws are used 
disproportionately to prosecute young black men and point to police 
figures to support their case.

In 2010, 91pc of all marijuana arrests in DC were of black people. 
Three-quarters of all civil fines for cannabis use are handed out in 
the city's black neighbourhoods. "Police use marijuana laws to harass 
people of colour," said Malik Burnett, a young black doctor helping 
to lead the legalisation effort. "The way to deal with that is to 
simply take marijuana out of the equation."

Initiative 71, as the marijuana measure is formally known, would 
allow people to possess up to two ounces of cannabis for personal use 
and grow six pot plants in their own homes. If there is a yes vote, 
the city council is expected to move quickly to pass laws regulating 
how it is sold.

Polls suggest Dr Burnett and his colleagues are on course for an easy 
victory. A September survey by the Washington Post found 65pc of 
voters back the initiative.

Perhaps ironically, it is the African-American community that is the 
most ambivalent about the prospect of legal pot. While DC's affluent 
white population is expected to vote in favour of Initiative 71 by a 
large margin, the city's black residents are more divided.

Those divisions were on display in the basement of the Michigan Park 
Christian Church, a historically black church in the northeast of the city.

"I have a lot of fears about what this is going to lead to," said Dr 
Stephen Tucker, one of several black pastors who gathered at the 
church to listen to a debate between supporters and opponents of the 
initiative.

"The church is always where people end up at when they've spent all 
their money, when their health is bad, when they're addicted, when 
their children have run away," he said.

Opponents of legalisation have raised the spectre of a "Big 
Marijuana" industry which would pursue profits with the same ruthless 
disregard for public health as cigarette and alcohol companies. 
Washington DC was also scarred by the crack cocaine epidemic that 
swept the US in the 1980s and many in the capital's black community 
are wary of loosening drug laws.

"Young guys my age do not need one more way to get high," said Will 
Jones, a 24-year-old African-American activist spearheading the fight 
against legal cannabis. "It's not going to help us in our education 
or our careers."

Supporters of legalisation argue that marijuana use is already 
widespread in Washington and that keeping it in the shadows benefits 
only criminal drug dealers.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom