House Committee Votes to Block D.C. Marijuana Laws

Republicans vote to reimpose 1990s-era restriction, for the children.

Rep. Andy Harris, R-Md., right, sponsored a spending bill amendment adopted by the House Appropriation Committee on Wednesday that would block the District of Columbia from reducing marijuana penalties. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, D-D.C., denounced the measure.

By Steven Nelson 

 

Republicans on the House Appropriations Committee voted Wednesday to ban the District of Columbia from implementing its own marijuana enforcement laws.
The prohibition, attached as a budget rider to the Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Bill, is similar to legislation passed in 1998 to block medical marijuana in the District.
The committee’s 28-21 vote is almost certain to prompt a House floor fight, with marijuana reform advocates and supporters of local autonomy likely to attempt to remove the wording.

The House Rules Committee will probably allow an open amendment process when the bill is considered by the full House, meaning members can propose changes without preapproval, according to a committee spokesman, but a formal decision has not yet been made.
Appropriations Committee members approved the budget rider in a roll-call vote following a brief debate. Democrats complained it was an end-run around the formal procedure for blocking D.C. laws, which requires a motion of disapproval to be passed by both houses of Congress.

The restriction, proposed by Rep. Andy Harris, R-Md., would not strike down any District law, but rather would ban the city government’s use of money to implement such laws.
Harris introduced the rider in response to a pending decriminalization law that would reduce District penalties for possession of up to 1 ounce of marijuana to a $25 fine. But the measure may also affect the District’s medical marijuana program.
The city’s first medical marijuana dispensaries opened in July 2013 after congressional Democrats allowed the 1998 budget rider – passed after nearly 70 percent of residents voted for medical marijuana – to lapse in 2009.

The new rider says no funds “may be used to enact or carry out any law, rule, or regulation to legalize or otherwise reduce penalties associated with the possession, use, or distribution of any schedule I substance under the Controlled Substances Act.”
Harris boasted of his triumph in a Wednesday news release.
“Congress has the authority to stop irresponsible actions by local officials, and I am glad we did for the health and safety of children throughout the District,” he said.

Congress has not blocked decriminalization laws in more than a dozen states or gone after the 24 states that have legalized medical marijuana. It has not passed legislation attempting to end recreational marijuana legalization in Colorado and Washington, where the Department of Justice is allowing regulated markets despite federal law.
In fact, the House voted on May 30 to ban the Department of Justice from going after medical marijuana in jurisdictions, including the District, that allow it – with 49 House Republican joining 170 Democrats in the majority.

If the Senate also passes that prohibition, the Drug Enforcement Administration and federal prosecutors would be blocked from spending money to enforce federal law against patients and distributors complying with local laws.
The District of Columbia had a higher per capita arrest rate for marijuana possession than any of the 50 states in 2010, according to a 2013 American Civil Liberties Union report. More than 90 percent of those arrested were black. The racial enforcement disparity is one of the primary reasons cited by city politicians who support reducing penalties. The D.C. Council voted 10-1 in favor of the decriminalization measure in March.

“It is outrageous that members of Congress are trying to overturn a locally-enacted law that has the overwhelming support of D.C. voters and the D.C. Council,” says Bill Piper, director of national affairs with the Drug Policy Alliance. “That Rep. Harris is picking on a majority black district and no other jurisdiction with marijuana decriminalization is very telling. His own state has decriminalized marijuana but he’s not interfering with it.”