Pubdate: Thu, 13 Nov 2014
Source: New York Post (NY)
Copyright: 2014 N.Y.P. Holdings, Inc.
Contact: http://www.nypost.com/postopinion/letters/letters_editor.htm
Website: http://www.nypost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/296
Author: Jacob Sullum
Page: 27

CONGRESS & THE DISTRICT OF CANNABIS

OF the three jurisdictions where voters approved marijuana 
legalization last week, Washington, DC, is the smallest but the most 
symbolically potent. The prospect of legal marijuana in the nation's 
capital dramatically signals the ongoing collapse of the 77-year-old 
ban on a much-maligned plant.

The passage of Initiative 71, which voters backed by a margin of more 
than 2 to 1, presents a challenge to the Republicans who will soon 
control both houses of Congress. Will they respect democracy and 
local control, or will they insist that Washingtonians toe a 
prohibitionist line that is steadily disappearing?

Initiative 71 allows adults 21 or older to possess two ounces or less 
of marijuana, grow up to six plants at home and transfer up to an 
ounce at a time to other adults "without remuneration."

It doesn't authorize commercial production and distribution, but the 
DC Council is considering legislation that would. "I see no reason 
why we wouldn't follow a regime similar to how we regulate and tax 
alcohol," incoming Mayor Muriel Bowser said last week.

The initiative doesn't take effect until after DC Council Chairman 
Phil Mendelson submits it to Congress for review. Congress then has 
either 30 or 60 days (a matter of dispute) to pass a joint resolution 
overriding the initiative; if it fails to do so, the initiative becomes law.

Congress also can stop legalization by barring the DC Council from 
spending money to implement Initiative 71. For more than a decade, 
legislators used that technique to block a medical-marijuana 
initiative that voters approved in 1998.

Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md.), who unsuccessfully tried to prevent the DC 
Council from decriminalizing marijuana possession earlier this year, 
told The Washington Post he will "consider using all resources 
available to a member of Congress" to stop legalization. He might 
have more luck this time, since his earlier amendment was approved by 
the House but not the Senate, which will soon have a Republican majority.

Then again, the House last May approved an amendment introduced by 
Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) that was aimed at stopping the 
federal government from undermining medical-marijuana laws. The 
amendment, which attracted votes from 49 Republicans in addition to 
170 Democrats, explicitly applied to DC as well as the 23 states that 
let patients use marijuana for symptom relief. Sen. Rand Paul 
(R-Ky.), who is expected to chair a key committee that oversees the 
District, believes Congress should respect the will of the voters who 
approved Initiative 71. "I think there should be a certain amount of 
discretion for both states and territories and the District," Paul 
told reporters on Election Day. "I'm not for having the federal 
government get involved. I really haven't taken a stand on . . . the 
actual legalization . . . but I'm against the federal government 
telling them they can't."

The DC Cannabis Campaign, which backed Initiative 71, hopes that even 
Republicans who still associate marijuana with the 1960s 
counterculture will see the merits of local autonomy. "What we want 
is for Phil Mendelson to transfer the initiative when the new 
Congress is seated," says Nikolas Schiller, the campaign's director 
of communications. "We believe that a new Republican Congress will 
not interfere with something that deals solely with personal liberties."

Principles aside, there are sound political reasons for Republicans 
to avoid defining themselves as pot prohibitionists. Several recent 
polls indicate that most Americans favor legalization, and support is 
especially strong among younger voters. Last year a Gallup survey 
found that retirees were the only age group in which most people 
still supported prohibition.

"With marijuana legal in the federal government's backyard," says Tom 
Angell of the anti-prohibitionist group Marijuana Majority, "it's 
going to be increasingly difficult for national politicians to 
continue ignoring the growing majority of voters who want to end 
prohibition. I've been saying for a while that 2016 presidential 
candidates need to start courting the cannabis constituency, and now 
the road to the White House quite literally travels through legal 
marijuana territory."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom