Pubdate: Mon, 14 Jul 2014
Source: New York Times (NY)
Copyright: 2014 The New York Times Company
Contact: http://www.nytimes.com/ref/membercenter/help/lettertoeditor.html
Website: http://www.nytimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/298
Author: Trip Gabriel

MARIJUANA IS AT CENTER OF FEUD IN CAPITAL

Marijuana Decriminalization in Washington D.C. Is Contested by Federal
Lawmakers

WASHINGTON - A law to make marijuana possession in the District of
Columbia punishable by only a $25 ticket, one of the laxest drug laws
in the nation, has ignited a feud between Washington's mayor and a
Republican House member days before it is to take effect.

Mayor Vincent C. Gray urged district residents to boycott the beaches
and resort towns of Maryland's Eastern Shore, after its congressman
moved to block the city's marijuana-friendly law, claiming more
teenagers will take up drug use.

"He is interfering with democracy in this city, and we want people to
understand how we feel about it," the mayor said in an interview. He
pointed out that Maryland, like the district, decriminalized marijuana
this year, and if the congressman, Representative Andy Harris, had
been in the legislature, he would have been outvoted.

Marijuana has potent political symbolism in this city with a large
black population because the vast majority of arrests here for
possession is of blacks. But at issue is more than marijuana.
Infringements on Washington's home rule hits an ever-sensitive nerve,
setting off howls of "hypocrisy" and "tyranny" in a city whose license
plates read "Taxation Without Representation."

A city of liberal voters, the district has long had prickly relations
with conservative members of Congress who set up part-time
housekeeping here and, thanks to the Constitution, get a big say in
local affairs.

"These are things people can't even do in their own home states, and
they use the District of Columbia to make an example out of us," Mr.
Gray said.

City officials accuse federal lawmakers of grandstanding for voters
back home or nationally.

"There's a long tradition of people trying to score points off of us,"
said David Catania, a District of Columbia council member.

In recent years, conservative Republicans have stopped the city from
implementing a needle exchange program to slow the spread of H.I.V., a
registry of gay domestic partners and medical marijuana. All
eventually went forward, sometimes after a decade of
obstruction.

Mr. Catania accused Mr. Harris of seeking to enhance his bona fides in
a campaign for leadership of the Republican Study Committee, a group
that seeks to pull the House further right. The chairmanship opened in
a House leadership shuffle after the primary defeat of Representative
Eric Cantor of Virginia, who resigned as majority leader. Mr. Harris,
who is a physician, won his seat in 2010 after a State Senate career
in which he was known for opposing late-term abortions, as well as
X-rated movies at the University of Maryland.

He denied a political motive in opposing marijuana decriminalization.
"If I were looking to advance my position among the broad spectrum of
Republicans, this is probably not the way to do it," he said.

His objection to the district's law is because it reduces the penalty
for possession of up to one ounce of marijuana to a $25 civil fine - a
trivial sum, in his view, which he predicted would entice more
teenagers to drug use. "One ounce can be almost 100 joints," he said.
"That is not a small amount."

"Society has some responsibility for protecting minors," he added. "I
think the D.C. law protects them in no way, shape or form."

The law passed in a 10-1 council vote in March. Supporters cited a
study showing a racial disparity in enforcing marijuana laws: 90
percent of Washingtonians arrested on charges of possession were
black, in a city where blacks are 50 percent of the population.

Mr. Harris's effort to block the law came in the form of an amendment
to a spending bill, which passed the House Appropriations Committee.
The rider would stop the district from using its tax revenues to
enforce decriminalization. The measure must survive a full House vote
and, in an unlikely scenario, a joint conference with the
Democrat-controlled Senate.

Attaching budget riders is a backdoor way for lawmakers to block local
laws, an authority granted to Congress in Article 1 of the
Constitution. The more straightforward, and rarely successful, path is
a joint resolution of Congress overturning a district law. Because
Congress has not moved to do that within the required window of 60
legislative days, the law is scheduled to take effect this week.

If Mr. Harris's rider later becomes law, it would make the city's
decriminalization a brief interlude.

District officials, while acknowledging the constitutional authority
of Congress, denounced its interference as undemocratic.

"Shouldn't the people of the District of Columbia in a democracy be
permitted to make decisions?" Mr. Gray said. "We have more people in
the District of Columbia than in the whole state of Wyoming or in
Vermont. I can't imagine Representative Harris feels he ought to
interfere in the business of those two states."

Michael K. Fauntroy, a political scientist at Howard University who
has written extensively on Washington home rule, said Congress has not
stepped in as often in recent years as during a volatile period in the
city's management before 2000.

"But it's still a tinderbox, and it wouldn't take much to get Congress
back involved," he said.

One possible spark: The city's move to go beyond marijuana
decriminalization to full legalization. This week, activists presented
signatures to qualify a referendum for the November ballot that would
legalize possession of up to two ounces of pot for personal use and
the right to grow three marijuana plants at home.

Passage of the measure, Initiative 71, would put the city in the
vanguard of pro-marijuana jurisdictions, including two Western states,
Colorado and Washington, where legal retailers selling recreational
marijuana opened this year.

The District of Columbia's referendum would not allow sales. But the
prospect of marijuana plants bending to the sun in the windows of
Capitol Hill rowhouses might prove too great a provocation to many
lawmakers.

"I think Congress would step in to overturn it," Mr. Fauntroy said.
"Especially if Republicans take control of the Senate."

However, in the face of a sweltering summer, it does not appear that
many residents have heeded the mayor's call to skip their traditional
visits to the Eastern Shore beaches and bay towns in Mr. Harris's district.

"We had huge crowds in town for the Fourth of July," said Donna
Abbott, director of tourism for Ocean City, Md., a popular destination
on the Atlantic Ocean.  
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