This was expected: A member of Congress is going to try to derail the District’s marijuana decriminalization law by introducing an amendment blocking its implementation.
Representative Andy Harris, a Maryland Republican, says he’ll attach his amendment to the Financial Services and General Government Appropriations bill, an annual piece of legislation which authorizes funding for, among other things, the District’s budget, Roll Call reports.
Mayor Vince Gray signed the decriminalization legislation into law in March, but because Congress gets 60 working days to review laws that affect the District’s judicial system, it will not take effect until mid-July. Harris’s amendment would not techincally overturn it, but it would prohibit the District from using either federal funds or its own local revenue to decriminalize marijuana. (The District’s budget, while approved by the DC Council, is still subject to federal review.)
“I had hoped that D.C. was in good company with the 17 states that had decriminalized marijuana before the city did,” DC Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton says in a press release. Among those 17 states is Harris’s. Governor Martin O’Malley signed a law in April that removes criminal penalties for possession of ten grams or less of cannabis.
The District’s decriminalization law replaces criminal penalties for possesson of less than one ounce with fines of $25. It was passed, in part, to alleviate a grave disparity in the marijuana arrest rates between black residents and white residents. Black residents are eight times as likely as white residents to be arrested for marijuana, even though the rate of use is even between the groups, according to an ACLU study published last year.
Harris’s office did not return requests for comment. But while he says he doesn’t like his home state’s newly relaxed stance on small-time pot possession, he seems eager to futz with the District’s.
“The Constitution treats the District of Columbia and Maryland differently,” he tells Roll Call.
But Harris may be living in a pipe dream. Even if his amendment clears the Appropriations Committee and the House at large, it would still need to clear the Democratic-controlled Senate and be signed by President Obama to take nullify DC’s decriminalization effort.
Benjamin Freed joined Washingtonian in August 2013 and covers politics, business, and media. He was previously the editor of DCist and has also written for Washington City Paper, the New York Times, the New Republic, Slate, and BuzzFeed. He lives in Adams Morgan.
House GOP Will Attempt to Block DC Marijuana Decriminalization
A Maryland representative says he plans to block the District's plans.
This was expected: A member of Congress is going to try to derail the District’s marijuana decriminalization law by introducing an amendment blocking its implementation.
Representative Andy Harris, a Maryland Republican, says he’ll attach his amendment to the Financial Services and General Government Appropriations bill, an annual piece of legislation which authorizes funding for, among other things, the District’s budget, Roll Call reports.
Mayor Vince Gray signed the decriminalization legislation into law in March, but because Congress gets 60 working days to review laws that affect the District’s judicial system, it will not take effect until mid-July. Harris’s amendment would not techincally overturn it, but it would prohibit the District from using either federal funds or its own local revenue to decriminalize marijuana. (The District’s budget, while approved by the DC Council, is still subject to federal review.)
“I had hoped that D.C. was in good company with the 17 states that had decriminalized marijuana before the city did,” DC Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton says in a press release. Among those 17 states is Harris’s. Governor Martin O’Malley signed a law in April that removes criminal penalties for possession of ten grams or less of cannabis.
The District’s decriminalization law replaces criminal penalties for possesson of less than one ounce with fines of $25. It was passed, in part, to alleviate a grave disparity in the marijuana arrest rates between black residents and white residents. Black residents are eight times as likely as white residents to be arrested for marijuana, even though the rate of use is even between the groups, according to an ACLU study published last year.
Harris’s office did not return requests for comment. But while he says he doesn’t like his home state’s newly relaxed stance on small-time pot possession, he seems eager to futz with the District’s.
“The Constitution treats the District of Columbia and Maryland differently,” he tells Roll Call.
But Harris may be living in a pipe dream. Even if his amendment clears the Appropriations Committee and the House at large, it would still need to clear the Democratic-controlled Senate and be signed by President Obama to take nullify DC’s decriminalization effort.
Benjamin Freed joined Washingtonian in August 2013 and covers politics, business, and media. He was previously the editor of DCist and has also written for Washington City Paper, the New York Times, the New Republic, Slate, and BuzzFeed. He lives in Adams Morgan.
Most Popular in News & Politics
What It Felt Like for a Virginia Marching Band to Win Metallica’s Contest
What’s IN and OUT in DC Restaurant Trends for 2024
Introducing 8 of DC’s Most Stylish
Best of Washington 2023: Things to Eat, Drink, Do, and Know Right Now
Washingtonian Magazine
May 2024: Great Getaways
View IssueSubscribe
Follow Us on Social
Follow Us on Social
Related
13 Major Concerts and Music Festivals in the DC Area This Spring
Mary Timony on Her Emotional New Album, “Untame the Tiger”
The Beatles in DC: A New Exhibit in Maryland Looks Back on Early Beatlemania
Northern Virginia High School Wins Metallica’s Marching Band Competition
More from News & Politics
These Volunteers Wake Up at Dawn to Collect DC’s Dead—and Injured—Birds
Guest List: 5 People We’d Love to Hang Out With This May
Democrats and Republicans Pass Balls, Not Bills, at Congressional Soccer Game
3 New Memoirs by Prominent Women
Everything You Wanted to Know About Urban Bear Sightings but Were Afraid to Ask, Because Who Wants to Get That Close to a Bear?
Rockville Police Are Searching for Culprits of a $4,500 Pickleball Paddle Heist
Dozens of Vintage Planes Will Fly Over the National Mall This Saturday
PHOTOS: “Rupaul’s Drag Race” Queens Work It at the National Mall