Landlords, tenants and homeowners have an unexpected new worry: legalized marijuana. Already, marijuana use is an issue for D.C. landlords under decriminalization. One owner of 350 rentals in the city is about to add a no-smoking clause to his lease. He has always advertised his properties as non-smoking. But he is getting an increasing number of complaints from tenants in his buildings about the pungent odor from dope-smoking. The latest trend in the marijuana subculture is the smoking of "dabs" of marijuana concentrate. This highly concentrated form of marijuana is expensive but growing in popularity for recreational use. And it's explosive - literally. [continues 500 words]
In the Feb. 12 Fed Page article "House panelists say changes are needed to end civil forfeiture abuses," Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Tex.) said, "It is increasingly apparent that our laws are not sufficient" to protect individuals. One would think that the Fourth and Fifth amendments of the Constitution, with their unambiguous language about the need for warrants and due process, would clearly render the whole concept of civil forfeiture unconstitutional. We need a Congress willing to repeal these laws or a judiciary willing to uphold the Constitution by declaring such laws in conflict with the property rights defined in the Constitution and, therefore, invalid. Bill Bach, Darnestown [end]
Regarding the Feb. 16 front-page article "D.C. lacks pot rules even as legalization day nears": Do city officials want the District to be known for pot use and as a pot distribution center? A recent Police Foundation report on the impact of pot legalization tells of the nightmare that is unfolding in Colorado. The same nightmare is likely to unfold in the District if the law goes forward with or without regulation. The following can be expected: increased use among youth; increased numbers of those seeking treatment; increased pot-related DUIs; increased secondhand smoke issues; increased drug cartel and black-market activity; and increased homelessness. [continues 80 words]
Thanks to Catherine Rampell for exposing in her Feb. 13 op-ed column, "Drug tests for everyone," the hypocrisy of governors and legislators who want to test those who receive public funds and benefits. Targeting the poor and the most vulnerable for drug testing has proved that it costs more to do the testing than to pay the benefit. Not a prudent use of taxpayer money. However, we can be certain that Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) and politicians of his political bent will not be targeting those (the top 20 percent) claiming tax breaks, although doing so could, as Ms. Rampell says, "produce a huge windfall." Bullying and intimidating the poorest with drug testing is nothing more than a way for politicians to establish their conservative bona fides, and it is certainly not the path to follow for weeding out those receiving the biggest public subsidies. Elise Cleva, Arlington [end]
The District of Columbia could soon earn a new nickname: the Wild West of marijuana. In 10 days, a voter-approved initiative to legalize marijuana will take effect, D.C. officials say. Residents and visitors old enough to drink a beer will be able to possess enough pot to roll 100 joints. They will be able to carry it, share it, smoke it and grow it. But it's entirely unclear how anyone will obtain it. Unlike the four states where voters have approved recreational pot use, the District government has been barred from establishing rules governing how marijuana will be sold. It was prohibited from doing so by Congress, which has jurisdiction over the city. [continues 1943 words]
Scott Walker is right: It's time for more Americans to get comfortable peeing in cups. Our nation's fiscal health may depend on it. I'm referring, of course, to taking a drug test as a condition for receiving government benefits. Walker, the Wisconsin governor and a likely 2016 Republican presidential contender, made this a centerpiece of his recently announced state budget. True, results from other states that have tried this strategy don't look particularly encouraging. In Tennessee, more than 16,000 applicants for public assistance were screened for drug use under a new state law; exactly 37 tested positive, or about 0.2 percent. [continues 674 words]
AG Says Hearing Might Violate Congressional Ban The D.C. Council on Monday downgraded the scope of a hearing on regulating marijuana sales to avoid legal concerns raised by the city's attorney general - a move emblematic of the hurdles congressional oversight has created for the District in its quest to legalize pot. Over the weekend, the D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine alerted council members that holding a hearing on the proposal would violate a congressional ban on spending money to enact legislation that loosens drug laws in the city. Warned that improper action could earn officials and staff jail time or $5,000 fines, council committees instead held an informal roundtable discussion to enable dozens of witnesses assembled Monday to testify on the issue. [continues 539 words]
It's A Rocky Trip Down From a Rocky Mountain High Certain Americans have a love-hate relationship with marijuana, and with the pleasure comes the pain. In Colorado, where residents have legalized the euphoria of pot, the unhealthy consequences of it are beginning to emerge. There's a warning for other states in the Rocky Mountain high. Last week, the state of Colorado published a 188-page study of the health effects of pot. Coming a year after voter-approved legalization took effect, "Monitoring Health Concerns Related to Marijuana in Colorado: 2014" reviews existing literature and compiles a summary of the effects of marijuana use. Given the health risks associated with cannabis, it's a perverse irony of human nature that the craving for a high can drive a stoner to give in to such a self-abusing downer. [continues 448 words]
The D.C. Council made another wrong move Monday by discussing the pros and cons of the Prohibition of Pre-Employment Marijuana Testing Act, which would bar employers from drug testing job applicants and prospective employees. Before the lawmakers take another whiff of this insidious proposal, they should take a serious step in a different direction. All 13 members of the council and Mayor Muriel Bowser, if she is considering endorsing such a bill, should be tested for drugs. The very idea of measures such as these opens wide the doors to undermine public safety, public health and common sense. [continues 613 words]
City Attorney General Saw Risk of Violating Congressional Ban The D.C. Council abandoned plans to hold a hearing on how to tax and regulate marijuana Monday after the District's new attorney general warned that it could subject city lawmakers and their staff members to fines and even jail time. The move amounted to a setback for advocates of marijuana legalization and highlighted the difficulties the District is likely to face as it tries to implement Initiative 71, the ballot measure approved overwhelmingly by voters in November. [continues 992 words]
(AP) - The acting U.S. drug czar says the federal government shouldn't interfere with the District's move to legalize possession of marijuana for recreational use. Michael Botticelli said Friday that while he doesn't agree with legalization, he believes the District "should stick to its home rule." City voters approved legalization in November by a nearly 2-to-1 margin. But in December Congress passed a spending bill that included language intended to block legalization. D.C. leaders argue that they can still make pot legal because the language of the bill wasn't clear. The bill blocks the District from spending money to change its marijuana laws. Mr. Botticelli said during a question-and-answer session on Friday that the District government should be able to spend local tax dollars as it sees fit. [end]
One Word Could Help the District Around a Congressional Action WASHINGTON - Last fall, voters in the District of Columbia chose to join a handful of states in legalizing the production and possession of small amounts of marijuana. But unlike in the states, the free will of district voters - no matter how overwhelmingly expressed - is never the end of the story. Congressional Republicans believe they have successfully nullified the law. But officials here, seizing on a single word in the congressional legislation designed to scuttle the policy, beg to differ, setting up one of the most closely watched collisions between the two Washingtons in years. [continues 843 words]
WASHINGTON - Last fall, voters in the District of Columbia chose to join a handful of states in legalizing the growth and possession of small amounts of marijuana. But unlike in the states, the free will of district voters - no matter how overwhelmingly expressed - is never the end of the story. Congressional Republicans believe they have successfully nullified the law. But officials here, seizing on a single word in the congressional legislation designed to scuttle the policy, beg to differ, setting up one of the most closely watched collisions between the two Washingtons in years. [continues 838 words]
President Obama's $4 trillion budget plan would allow the District to spend its own tax dollars to legalize and regulate marijuana by rolling back restrictions put in place by Republican lawmakers last year. Congress passed a spending bill in December that blocks the District from spending any money - federal or local tax dollars - to enact legislation that would legalize or reduce penalties associated with the recreational use of marijuana or any other Schedule 1 drugs. The congressional action leaves the District in the lurch as D.C. residents voted to legalize recreational marijuana but lawmakers have yet to adopt a regulatory scheme that would allow its sale and taxation. [continues 440 words]
Proposal Ends Congress's Restriction on Setting Up Regulations in the City President Obama's $4 trillion budget would do a lot of things, but one of the most controversial may turn out to be allowing legal sales of marijuana in the nation's capital. D.C. voters overwhelmingly approved a ballot measure last year to follow Colorado and Washington state in legalizing pot for recreational use. But in December, outgoing Democrats and incoming Republican leaders in Congress moved to halt the measure. Under a broad budget deal, they prevented the District's mayor and council from spending any money to work out the specifics of how pot would be sold, which the ballot measure left up to local politicians to decide. [continues 447 words]
Eric Wang's Jan. 25 Local Opinions commentary, "The cost of a political opinion," characterized William V. Jones III, the founder of the group "Two. Is. Enough. D.C.," as a concerned citizen who merely made an anti-marijuana Web site and participated in a few meetings, rather than someone who should have been fined for campaign law violations. Before registering as a campaign, Mr. Jones collected contributions without disclosure or oversight, had large banners printed with his message and branding and brought in a former congressman to help him host a news conference announcing the launch of his political group. Mr. Jones was the head of what was, by all outward appearances, an unregulated political campaign formed to oppose a specific ballot measure, Initiative 71. His fining hardly shows overreach by D.C. government. Matt Popovich, Washington [end]
D.C. police have written more than 250 tickets for marijuana possession in the roughly six months since the District relaxed its marijuana laws, but the vast majority of citations have simply been ignored, an analysis by The Washington Times has found. From July 17 through Jan. 7, the Metropolitan Police Department issued 251 tickets for marijuana possession, with 47 percent issued to people in the department's Seventh District, which lies east of the Anacostia River and includes some of the city's poorest neighborhoods. [continues 1224 words]
Civic-minded citizens of the District: Think twice the next time you write a blog entry, post on Facebook or Twitter or attend a meeting or rally to support or oppose a ballot initiative. You could be required to register and report with the city or else pay a large fine. The Office of Campaign Finance (OCF) at the D.C. Board of Elections dropped this end-of-the-year bombshell in an enforcement proceeding arising from November's election, in which District residents voted to legalize marijuana. [continues 380 words]
Move to Gauge How Lawmakers Challenge Congress The D.C. Council is pursuing a regulatory scheme for the sale and taxation of marijuana, scheduling hearings on proposed legislation that flies in the face of congressional attempts to prevent the District from loosening its drug laws. City officials say council committees expect to begin hearings on the bill in early February - a move that will gauge how far D.C. lawmakers are willing to challenge Congress on the issue. D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson said the council should be in the clear to hold public meetings on the proposed legislation, which would codify regulations regarding marijuana that were not included in a voter-approved ballot initiative. [continues 446 words]
Regarding the Jan. 14 Metro article "D.C. defies Hill on pot": Congressional Republicans ought to tread lightly in their crusade to block the legalization of recreational marijuana in Washington. In their refusal to give the District autonomy over this issue, one that 7 in 10 D.C. voters supported at the ballot box, Republicans are doing more to bolster the D.C. statehood argument than anyone else. What's their motivation? The legislators' constituents largely do not care if Washingtonians smoke: Pew Research found that 83 percent of Americans wouldn't be bothered by people lighting up in their own homes if weed were legal. What might bother their constituents are the two far-left senators that the District would elect if it became a state- an argument unfortunately strengthened by Republican stubbornness on this issue. Congressional Republicans' priorities are hazy, to say the least. The people of the District have spoken; now is not the time for outside legislators to interfere with the will of the people. Daniel Burnett, Washington [end]
Inside District of Columbia
