Pubdate: Wed, 10 Dec 2014
Source: Washington Post (DC)
Copyright: 2014 The Washington Post Company
Contact: http://mapinc.org/url/mUgeOPdZ
Website: http://www.washingtonpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/491
Authors: Aaron C. Davis and Ed O'Keefe

SPENDING DEAL BLOCKS D.C. POT LEGALIZATION

The District will be prohibited from legalizing marijuana for the 
much of the coming year under a spending deal reached Tuesday between 
top Senate Democrats and House Republicans to fund the federal 
government through next September.

The development - upending voter-approved Initiative 71 - shocked 
elected D.C. leaders, advocates for marijuana legalization and civil 
liberties groups who earlier in the day had grown confident that the 
measure would be at least partially protected while Democrats still 
controlled the Senate.

However, with Republicans set to take control of the chamber in 
January, the defeat suggested that the will of D.C. voters - who 
approved marijuana legalization last month by a margin of more than 2 
to 1 - may be suspended indefinitely.

"I can't believe they did this," D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson 
(D) said. "We don't need to be locking these people up."

"It's totally disturbing; it's entirely undemocratic," said Adam 
Eidinger, who led the efforts to collect over 57,000 signatures this 
year to put the measure before D.C. voters.

Late Tuesday, Eidinger said marijuana advocates were organizing a 
protest that would begin Wednesday evening at the Justice Department 
and march to Capitol Hill with the potential for several advocates to 
seek arrest.

"I'm ready for some civil disobedience. If you're going to overturn 
an election, you might as well say something before it's done."

The developments capped a roller-coaster 24 hours in the worst 
possible way for advocates of the District's marijuana measure.

Late Monday, congressional aides had floated the possibility that the 
spending deal would include a provision sought by conservative House 
Republicans to block the voter-approved measure.

By midday Tuesday, it appeared negotiators had found middle ground to 
legalize possession of marijuana but to allow no further action by 
D.C. officials to create a regulatory system for legal sales and 
taxation of the plant.

But many warned that the partial constraints might prove to be a 
worse outcome, potentially leading to chaos for lawmakers and police 
officers trying to rewrite and enforce city drug laws.

The ballot measure was written to allow for possession of up to two 
ounces of pot and home cultivation of up to three mature cannabis 
plants. It left up to city lawmakers the accompanying regulatory 
structure for how to legally sell and tax the plant.

Under a spending "rider" included in the 1,600-page bill distributed 
late Tuesday, neither part would be allowed.

The language could also roll back a law passed by the D.C. Council 
and signed by Mayor Vincent C. Gray (D) in the spring to join 18 
states that have eliminated criminal penalties for marijuana possession.

D.C. now issues a $25 citation for marijuana possession, but under 
Monday night's vote, the penalty may revert to one of greater severity.

Mendelson, reached late Tuesday, said he was dismayed Congress would 
send the city's drug laws in reverse. "It's bad enough that they were 
setting their sights on legalization, but for them to go further and 
undo decriminalization - it's irrational when over a third of states 
have done so."

The rider language mirrored an amendment introduced over the summer 
by Rep. Andy Harris, (R-Md.), the most outspoken congressional critic 
of D.C. legalization.

Earlier Tuesday, he predicted that any deal between Democrats and 
Republicans would signal widespread skepticism for marijuana 
legalization for recreational use.

Following a speech at the conservative Heritage Foundation, which was 
interrupted repeatedly by marijuana advocates, Harris said a deal 
would "show fairly broad-based support in Congress against legalization."

Maryland's only House Republican also said he had no qualms about 
interfering with the results of the Nov. 4 election. On that day, 
voters in Alaska, the District and Oregon chose to legalize 
marijuana, but only the District's vote was subject to oversight by Congress.

"The fact is the Constitution gives Congress the ultimate oversight 
about what happens in the federal district," Harris said.

It was unclear what Senate Democrats bargained for the marijuana 
restriction in the District but a sign that the measure was on the 
chopping block came Tuesday afternoon when Senate Majority Leader 
Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) conceded that it appeared likely to remain 
part of the final bill.

"The District of Columbia should do what they want to do," Reid said, 
adding that he opposes congressional limits on how the city 
implements Initiative 71 to legalize marijuana.

Another sign the measure was in trouble came when D.C. Democrats 
directed anger at senators of their own party. "I certainly don't 
know why Democrats would agree to block legalization while we still 
control the White House, we still control the Senate - and who knows, 
they may even need Democratic votes to pass this," said Del. Eleanor 
Holmes Norton.

The District's nonvoting House member said she had been locked out of 
the decision-making process entirely. "I don't even know which 
Democrats are in the room. . . . I cannot tell why Democrats would 
want to give Republicans a head start to do what they are going to be 
able to do, I suppose, in less than a month" when Republicans take 
control of the Senate.

Kimberly Perry, head of D.C. Vote, an organization dedicated to 
voting representation for the District in Congress, said any limits 
on how the city could implement the legislation would be unacceptable.

"If reports are true, members of Congress from both parties bargained 
away the rights of the people of the District of Columbia and in 
doing so compromised the core democratic values of the United 
States," she said in a statement. Perry urged members of Congress to 
"vote against this attempt to undermine democracy."

Congressional Republicans have previously used a similar technique to 
put limits on how the heavily Democratic city carries out liberal 
social policy, including spending its tax dollars to fund abortion 
coverage for the poor.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom