DC Council Votes To Decriminalize Marijuana

Cheers to the District of Columbia Council, which voted today in
favor of
a measure decriminalizing marijuana possession in the district.
Under the new rules, possessing a small amount of marijuana will be
a civil, not criminal, offense, punishable by a $25 fine. That’s
less then the price of your average D.C. parking ticket!

The law also: 

• protects people who share marijuana from being prosecuted as
  dealers

• prevents police from charging people with possession or dealing
  if they simultaneously possess both bags of marijuana and lots of
  cash

According
to The Washington Post, the move makes the capital one
of the most lenient places in the nation for marijuana possession,
after many years of strict war-on-drugs policing that
disproportionately harmed the city’s African American residents.
According to the measure’s author, Council member Tommy Wells
(D-Ward 6),
eight times more blacks than non-blacks are arrested for pot
possession in the district. A report released by the American Civil
Liberties Union last June showed that D.C. had a higher marijuana
arrest rate than any state in 2010. 

An earlier version of the bill would also have made smoking pot
in public a civil offense, punishable by a $100 fine. But as
passed, the measure keeps criminal penalties in place for smoking
or selling marijuana.

“While we support the dramatic reduction in penalties associated
with marijuana possession, this legislation will still allow the
police to continue to hassle and arrest District residents who
choose to smoke marijuana,”
said Adam Eidinger, chairman of the D.C. Cannabis Campaign, a
committee working to further reduce criminal penalties associated
with marijuana possession and cultivation. “We are organizing so
voters have a say on whether marijuana should be fully legal this
November.”