It looks like – for now, at least – Washingtonians have won, with weed decriminalization going into effect yesterday. German Lopez has details:
The law authorizes a $25 civil fine for possessing one ounce or less of marijuana and allows cops to seize the drug. It also prohibits public pot use with the threat of a 60-day jail penalty. Harsher penalties kick in for someone possessing larger amounts of pot. The goal, according to advocates, is to reduce massive racial disparities in DC’s arrest rates. Although black and white Americans tend to smoke pot at similar rates, an ACLU report found that black DC residents were eight times more likely to be arrested than white residents in 2010. DC’s overall arrest rate for pot possession was also among the highest in the nation at 846 arrests per 100,000 residents, compared to an average of about 241 per 100,000 around the country.
But as Alex Rogers notes, some Republican lawmakers are putting up a fight:
The law may still encounter some pushback from Congress, as the Republican-controlled House passed a bill Wednesday that includes an amendment to stop D.C. from using federal or local funds to implement the law. The bill was passed largely along party lines; only six Democrats supported the bill. Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md.), who sponsored the D.C. provision, told the Washington Post that pot is “poison to a teenager’s brain” and that the new law would treat teenagers in a dramatically different way to young people right across the Maryland border, where violators younger than 21-years-old are required to appear in court.
Francis Clines adds, “This is a hardy political tactic in Washington, whereby out-of-town Congressmen play top dog over elected city lawmakers, as the constitution permits”:
Congressional conservatives often can’t resist moralizing and scoring points back home by interfering with city laws. Meanwhile the city’s heavily black constituency understandably complains of “plantation” tyranny. Mr. Harris, a physician and former state legislator known for opposing late-term abortions and X-rated movies at the University of Maryland, said the city’s decriminalization law does not protect minors adequately from the addictive dangers of pot. District politicians called for a retaliatory summer boycott of the Eastern Shore beach resorts of Mr. Harris’s district.
Waldman slams Harris and his ilk:
On a whole range of issues, congressional Republicans would love to turn a city made up of mostly Democrats (and mostly black Democrats at that) into a kind of right-wing Epcot Center, where you can step out and imagine that, legally speaking, you’re in Texas or Alabama. This is just one of a number of cases in which conservatives claim to have a firmly held abstract principle that guides their thinking about specific issues, but in practice are almost always concerned about outcomes. They say they value states’ rights – but not if a state wants to do something progressive like legalize marijuana or same-sex marriage.
Recent Dish on decriminalization in DC here.
The Dish 