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. - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom