Political deal in works for Congress to deal with DC marijuana legalization issues

The Huffington Post has this notable new report on recent Capitol Hill activity to deal with the District of Columbia’s recently-passed marijuana legalization initiative.  The piece is headlined “Congress Looking To Block D.C.’s Marijuana Legalization Initiative,” and here are excerpts:

Congress is looking to stifle the District of Columbia’s marijuana legalization initiative, multiple sources have told The Huffington Post.

According to those sources, congressional negotiators have struck a deal to interfere with D.C.’s marijuana legalization measure.  That’s after nearly 70 percent of voters in the nation’s capital approved Initiative 71, which was set to legalize possession of small amounts of marijuana for personal use while still banning sales.  The deal would allow the District to continue its marijuana decriminalization policy enacted by the D.C. Council, but would ban the city from using funds to enact legalization.

One congressional source said the deal would actually allow the initiative to take effect, while preventing the D.C. Council from passing any new laws to set up a scheme for regulating retail sales of marijuana — something D.C. Mayor-elect Muriel Bowser (D) has said she wanted the council to do before legalization takes effect.   Democrats are rumored to be cutting a deal with Republicans “where they can save face by claiming that they protected D.C.’s marijuana decriminalization law from elimination, even if they failed to protect legalization,” according to Drug Policy Alliance.

“Democrats had the opportunity to protect the will of the voters in D.C. and they have decided to cut a deal in an effort to protect decriminalization.  However, 70 percent of voters support this [initiative]. It’s incredibly problematic,” Dr. Malik Burnett, policy manager at the Drug Policy Alliance and vice chairman of the D.C. Cannabis Campaign, told The Huffington Post.  “And in light of recent events in Ferguson and New York, it is particularly disturbing that Congress would choose to overturn the will of the voters in a majority black city. D.C. voters chose to reform their marijuana laws, which have a direct impact on how communities of color interact with police.  Congress is poised to undermine that.”…

In November, D.C. voters approved Initiative 71, which would legalize adult marijuana use, possession of up to 2 ounces and home cultivation of up to six marijuana plants for personal use. Under the measure, the sale of marijuana would remain illegal, but the D.C. Council is considering a separate bill that would allow for the regulation and taxation of marijuana sales, similar to laws on the books in Colorado and Washington state.

The ballot measure built on several recent moves to remove restrictions on marijuana in Washington. The District legalized medical marijuana in 2010, and its first medical marijuana dispensary opened last year. Earlier this year, the D.C. Council decriminalized the possession of an ounce or less of marijuana.

While supporters praised the measure as a step toward resolving the racial disparity in the District’s marijuana arrest rates, some Republicans had been working toward blocking the measure for months. Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md.) has vowed to put a stop to the progression of the bill in Congress….

Robert Capecchi, deputy director of state policies for the Marijuana Policy Project, a pro-legalization advocacy group, said it wasn’t clear exactly how Congress would go about thwarting the legalization initiative.  Federal lawmakers oversee how the District spends money, but the initiative isn’t expected to have a cost.  “The way I read I71 the District doesn’t have to spend any money in order to implement it,” Capecchi said.

As is true with all legislative issues and is especially true with marijuana reform, a lot of the devil here will be in the details. Especially because the DC Initiative did not directly call for the establishment of a full-scale regulated commercial marijuana industry, it would not be obviously disrespectful for Congress to merely put some limits on whether and how DC can set up a full-scale legal marijuana marketplace. But it would be troublesome if Congress were to somehow require local DC police to persist in making arrests and bringing prosecutions for small-scale marijuana cultivation, possession and use.