Photo by: Ted S. Warren
This photo taken Oct. 16, 2013 shows marijuana clone plants that are used to grow medical marijuana displayed under a light, at
The Joint,
a medical marijuana cooperative in Seattle. It took nearly 15 years
after voters approved it for medical marijuana to become available in
the District of Columbia, but the next major change to the district’s
pot laws is on the fast track. The
D.C. Council is poised to approve a bill to decriminalize possession of small amounts of pot, and Democratic Mayor
Vincent Gray supports it. He could sign the bill into law as early as January. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)
WASHINGTON
— It took nearly 15 years after voters approved medical marijuana for
it to become available in the District of Columbia, but the next major
change to pot laws in the nation’s capital is on the fast track.
The
D.C. Council is poised to approve a bill that would decriminalize possession of small amounts of pot, and Democratic Mayor
Vincent Gray announced last month that he supports it. He could sign the bill into law as early as January.
Some
activists want the city to go further by legalizing, taxing and
regulating marijuana as Colorado and Washington state do, and they’re
considering a ballot initiative if the
council doesn’t take that step.
It’s
a big change from a year ago, when there was no medical marijuana in
the capital and elected officials weren’t talking about relaxing
recreational pot laws. Now, there are three tightly regulated marijuana
dispensaries in the city, although there aren’t many patients yet.
City leaders have long been cautious about pot, in part because
Congress has the final say on what’s legal in the district. But with 17 states having some form of decriminalization and the
Justice Department taking a hands-off approach to legalization in Colorado and Washington state, city leaders think
Congress won’t be interested in fighting that battle.
“What the states do would not matter if there were serious interest in the subject” on Capitol Hill, said
Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, a Democrat who represents the district in
Congress. “I don’t think there’s a serious interest in the subject.”
The
new sense of urgency has been fueled in part by two studies released
this year that found large racial disparities in marijuana arrests in
the city. Blacks were eight times more likely to be arrested than whites
in the district in 2010, the
American Civil Liberties Union found, and 91 percent of those arrested that year were black. About half of the city’s 632,000 residents are African-American.
“We have hundreds of young black men, black boys, being locked up, for simple possession of a couple bags of marijuana,” said
Democratic Councilmember Marion Barry,
one of the bill’s sponsors. “We don’t want to be proud of the wrong
kind of thing here. We need to stop that kind of injustice from
happening.”
Democrat
Paul Zukerberg,
a defense attorney who represents people charged with marijuana
offenses and who campaigned for the council this spring on
liberalization of marijuana laws, said he’s pleased members have
embraced the issue.
Alessandra Tarantino / AP
