Pubdate: Sat, 20 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
Author: Kimberly Perry
Page: A14

CONGRESSMEN WHO MOVED TO BLOCK D.C. MARIJUANA INITIATIVE: 
HYPOCRITICAL OR HELPFUL?

Colbert I. King's Dec. 13 op-ed column, "The threat to D.C. home rule 
can't be ignored," asserted that the District was caught 
"flat-footed" by the language in the federal spending bill that 
blocked voter Initiative 71.

Influential members of both parties who could have protected 
democracy in the District knew about this rider for months. Since the 
summer, activists, drug-policy reform experts and our elected leaders 
have urged members and staff to protect the will of D.C. voters.

When a rider was unveiled in July in response to the District's 
decriminalization of marijuana, DC Vote's call for a boycott of the 
Maryland district that is home to the author of the rider received 
extensive local and even national media attention.

Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) reached out to House and Senate 
leaders at that time. She hounded them again during negotiations over 
the spending bill.

The rider was no secret, and Congress knew where we stood. Sadly, in 
the end, leaders on both sides of the aisle decided that they could 
live with squashing democracy in the District.

Kimberly Perry, Washington The writer is executive director of DC Vote.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom