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Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
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U.S.: House Committee Votes To Block Marijuana Decriminalization In Washington DC
hemp.org Wednesday 25 Jun 2014 The House Appropriations Committee on Wednesday passed a Republican-sponsored amendment to the 2015 Financial Services and General Government Appropriations bill intended to prevent the District of Columbia from implementing its recently passed law decriminalizing the possession of marijuana. It also has the potential to end the District’s medical marijuana program. The amendment, offered by GOP Rep. Andy Harris (R-MD), passed by a vote of 28-21. It prohibits D.C. from spending federal funds or even its locally raised funds to carry out any law, rule or regulation to legalize or otherwise reduce criminal penalties for marijuana. The District of Columbia City Council passed a law in March replacing its criminal penalties for possession of less than an ounce of marijuana with a nominal $25 fine. It is scheduled to take effect July 17. The law was largely a response to an ACLU report showing blacks in the District of Columbia are roughly eight times more likely to be arrested for marijuana than whites, despite similar use rates. In 2010, 91 percent of all marijuana arrests in D.C. were of African Americans. The District’s medical marijuana law is the product of a 1998 initiative. It was not implemented until 2010 due to a provision in federal law, similar to the amendment offered by Rep. Harris, which was not repealed until 2009. The full House of Representatives passed an amendment on May 30 aimed at preventing the Department of Justice from enforcing federal law against patients and providers in compliance with state medical marijuana laws. The Marijuana Policy Project and other advocates will seek a floor vote to remove this amendment from the bill when it proceeds to the House floor. "We cannot depend on consistency or an aversion to hypocrisy to save our law," said Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC). "We simply have to fight, and fight we will." “The District of Columbia wisely decided to use stop wasting its own resources enforcing ineffective and racially biased laws and to allow those with serious illnesses whose doctors recommend it to use medical marijuana," said Dan Riffle, director of federal policies with the Marijuana Policy Project (MPP). "Unfortunately, unlike every state in America that gets to determine its own laws, Washington, D.C. laws are reviewed by Congress where Washington, D.C. residents have no voting representatives. “Marijuana is significantly less harmful than alcohol, and polls clearly show most Americans want to see it treated that way," Riffle said. "We’ll do everything we can to restore democracy in D.C. and ensure this regressive amendment is rejected when it is considered by the full House. "Mr. Harris’s antiquated, unscientific views on marijuana should be his constituents’ problem, not the District of Columbia’s,” Riffle said. “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,” said Bill Piper, director of national affairs with the Drug Policy Alliance (DPA). “That Rep. Harris is picking on a majority black district and no other jurisdiction with marijuana decriminalization is very telling," Piper said. "His own state has decriminalized marijuana but he’s not interfering with it.” This new law is viewed by D.C. lawmakers and advocates as a model for other jurisdictions looking to reduce racial disparities in the criminal justice system. By setting a $25 fine, which is the lowest civil fine for possession among 18 states that have decriminalized small amounts of marijuana, D.C. lawmakers cited the need to be responsive to social factors such as homelessness in the District and high rates of poverty in D.C. Wards that have seen the greatest number of marijuana arrests. The D.C. law takes effect in a few weeks. The amendment passed by Committee Republicans wouldn’t take effect until later this year, assuming it passes the House and Senate and is signed by the President. Should this Republican-led amendment take effect later this year, it may interrupt enforcement by D.C. police officers of the civil fine and marijuana seizure provisions of the law. This could have the practical effect of making marijuana possession essentially legal in the Nation’s Capital. Advocates also warn that enactment of this amendment into federal law could interrupt the D.C. government’s regulation of D.C.’s medical marijuana program. “D.C. lawmakers recently decriminalized marijuana possession because the people of the District of Columbia demanded an end to the disproportionate arrest of African Americans for small amounts of marijuana,” said Dr. Malik Burnett, D.C. policy manager with the Drug Policy Alliance. “Any effort by Congress that would block D.C.’s efforts to reform its marijuana laws denies the people of the Nation’s Capital the democratic right to pursue racial and social justice.” http://hemp.org/news/content/us-house-committee-votes-block-marijuana-decriminalization-washington-dc#sthash.jKBfaql6.dpuf
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