Pubdate: Thu, 05 Sep 2013
Source: Washington Post (DC)
Copyright: 2013 The Washington Post Company
Contact: http://mapinc.org/url/mUgeOPdZ
Website: http://www.washingtonpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/491
Author: Mike Debonis
Page: B2

MARIJUANA INITIATIVE TO BE REVISED AFTER OBJECTIONS

Activist withdrawing ballot proposal on decriminalization

The leader of an effort to have District residents vote on
decriminalizing the possession of small amounts of marijuana said
Wednesday that he would rework his proposal after the city's top
attorney raised concerns about the measure.

Adam Eidinger, a veteran city activist and the leader of DCMJ 2014
told the D.C. Board of Elections at its monthly meeting that he would
withdraw the decriminalization proposal in light of D.C. Attorney
General Irvin B. Nathan's objections, presented to the board in an
Aug. 27 letter, and resubmit it as a legalization bid.

"This initiative is going to look very different when we resubmit it,"
perhaps as soon as this week, Eidinger said.

Discussion of the DCMJ initiative comes as marijuana policy hits the
D.C. Council agenda, and marijuana law is likely to emerge as a
significant issue in the 2014 mayoral race. As currently written,
DCMJ's initiative would make it a civil violation, rather than a
criminal offense, to possess less than two ounces of marijuana or to
grow as many as three marijuana plants at a place of residence.

The civil violation would be punishable by fines of $100 or less,
assessed by the city's alcoholic beverage regulators. Police in most
circumstances would be prohibited from arresting or detaining a person
for those violations.

But Nathan found that some aspects of the proposal would run afoul of
a restriction in city law preventing ballot measures from
appropriating taxpayer funds. One such provision would require
violators younger than 18 to attend a free drug-awareness program.
Another would add civil marijuana violators to the groups protected by
the District's Human Rights Act, which Nathan said could create a
financial liability for the city and require expenditures to
adjudicate complaints.

Also problematic, Nathan said, is the fact that marijuana possession
would remain illegal under federal law: "We are aware of no other
statute in which the Council, or the public by initiative, has
prohibited [D.C. police] from arresting an individual when [police
have] probable cause to believe that the individual has committed a
federal crime."

A small number of District residents, certified by doctors to be
suffering from certain medical conditions, are able to buy cannabis
legally under the city's medical marijuana program. Last week, the
Justice Department issued guidance to federal prosecutors, saying that
local marijuana laws that conflict with the federal ban should
generally be respected unless they encroach on eight specific
enforcement priorities.

Eidinger, who appeared at Wednesday's meeting with a lawyer, said he
believed Nathan's objections were "predictable and minor" and could be
addressed in a revised initiative. "This was a learning experience,"
he said. "This was really about seeing how they would react to a
basic, broad consensus decriminalization."

At least two D.C. Council members are proposing legislation to change
local marijuana laws. Tommy Wells (D-Ward 6) introduced a
decriminalization bill this year that has significant council support,
and David Grosso (I-At Large) said he intends to pursue a full
legalization bill, akin to ballot measures approved last year in
Colorado and Washington state.

Eidinger said the initiative is intended to go further than the Wells
bill, which does not allow home cultivation of cannabis. The revised
proposal, he said, will probably hew more toward legalization than
decriminalization.

Should the three-member election board approve the ballot language,
DCMJ 2014 would have 180 days to collect the signatures of more than
25,000 city voters. Eidinger said Wednesday that the group has the
names of more than 2,000 residents willing to volunteer to circulate
the petitions.

"We can't do this without the whole city pitching in," he said.
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MAP posted-by: Matt