How Will Congress Respond to Marijuana Legalization in the Nation’s Capital?

Early
returns indicate that Washingtonians
are approving marijuana legalization in the nation’s
capital by a margin of more than 2 to 1. With about 6 percent of
precincts reporting, the
results are 69 percent in favor, 31 percent against. The
lopsided vote, which is consistent with the most recent
poll numbers, reflects a
dramatic turnaround in black voters’ views on legalization,
apparently driven by concerns about marijuana prohibition’s
racially disproportionate impact. 

Nationwide, according to a 2013 ACLU
report, blacks are about four times as likely to be arrested
for marijuana possession as whites, even though they are about
equally likely to smoke pot. In D.C., blacks are eight
times as likely to be busted for pot. D.C. also has a far
higher marijuana arrest rate than any other jurisdiction in the
country: 846 per 100,000 residents in 2010, compared to 535 in New
York City (D.C.’s closest competitor) and a national average of
256. 

Initiative
71 legalizes home cultivation of up to six plants by
adults 21 or older, along with possession of up to two ounces and
transfer of up to an ounce at a time “without remuneration.”
Residents who are not horticulturally inclined and do not have
friends who are will be out of luck unless the D.C. Council

approves a system for commercial production and distribution.
The council
heard testimony on that issue last week, and The Washington
Post reports
that “a majority…has vowed to also take up legislation early next
year that would establish a system to sell and tax marijuana.”

Whatever D.C. voters and legislators do can be undone by
Congress, which has 30 days to
overturn Initiative 71. Congress also can block Initiative 71 by
forbidding D.C. to spend money on implementing it, as it did for
years with the medical marijuana initiative that D.C. voters
approved in 1998. One possibly hopeful sign: When the D.C. Council
made possessing up to an ounce of marijuana a citable offense
subject to a $25 fine earlier this year, Congress let the law take
effect.

Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md.)
responded with an amendment that would have barred the District
from spending public money “to enact or carry out any law, rule, or
regulation to legalize or otherwise reduce penalties associated
with the possession, use, or distribution” of a controlled
substance. The House approved Harris’ amendment in June, but it
was dropped from
the final version of the spending bill. Harris said he would

try again if Initiative 71 passed.

The Obama administration
opposed the Harris amendment in language that suggests it would
also oppose attempts to override Initiative 71: “The Administration
strongly opposes the language in the bill preventing the District
from using its own local funds to carry out locally passed
marijuana policies, which…undermines the principles of States’
rights and of District home rule.” Today Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.)

said D.C. should be free to set its own marijuana policy. It
will be interesting to see how many Republicans agree with him.

On a related issue, the House last May
approved an amendment aimed at stopping the Drug Enforcement
Administration from undermining state laws allowing medical use of
marijuana. The amendment, which explicitly applied to the District
of Columbia, was introduced by Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) and
received votes from 49 Republicans as well as 170
Democrats.