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US: D.C. Votes To Legalize Marijuana

DCist

Wednesday 05 Nov 2014

With nearly 70 percent in favor, voters overwhelmingly voted to legalize marijuana in the District of Columbia.

Initiative 71, which was authored and submitted by the D.C. Cannabis Campaign, will allow adults over the age of 21 to legally posses up to two ounces of marijuana, as well as cultivate up to three mature cannabis plants at home. Additionally, the ballot initiative allows for adults to give—but not sell—up to one ounce away. At the polls today, 69.4 percent of District voters voted in favor of the initiative, with a total of 95,531.

“This victory is dedicated to everyone still sitting in jail tonight because of marijuana prohibition," Cannabis Campaign chairman Adam Eidinger said in a release. “District residents have made their voices heard loud and clear. The road to justice won’t end on Capitol Hill.”

But don't start sparking up yet, D.C., because the ballot initiative does not allow for legal smoking in public. Moreover, the initiative passing doesn't automatically make marijuana possession legal in D.C. right away. Like all legislation in the District, Initiative 71 has to go through a 60-day Congressional review period. However, the D.C. Council is likely to delay the initiative in order to put together a taxation and regulation bill—proposed by Councilmember David Grosso (I-At Large)—that will allow for the regulated sale of marijuana in the District. Still, there are a number of scenarios that could play out.

Like marijuana decriminalization, which was passed and became law in D.C. in July, the crux of the marijuana legalization movement is to end the staggering racial disparities in drug-related arrests. “The people of the District of Columbia have voted in favor of ending racially biased marijuana prohibition,” Dr. Malik Burnett, the Vice Chair of the DC Cannabis Campaign, said in a statement. “The harms caused by the war on drugs are not fixed with this vote alone; the real healing begins when the DC Council develops a tax-and-regulate system based on racial and social justice.”

http://dcist.com/2014/11/dc_votes_to_legalize_marijuana.php

 

 

 

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