Pubdate: Fri, 27 Feb 2015
Source: Seattle Times (WA)
Copyright: 2015 The Seattle Times Company
Contact:  http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/409
Author: Jennifer Steinhauer, The New York Times

HOUSE GOP NOT COOL WITH NEW 'HOMEGROWN' POT LAW

WASHINGTON - Some congressional Republicans said Thursday that they 
would increase their efforts to prevent District of Columbia 
residents from possessing small amounts of marijuana - which became 
legal Thursday - and warned that the city would face numerous 
investigations and hearings should the mayor continue her practice of 
telling them to please find something else to worry about.

"We say move forward at your own peril," said Rep. Jason Chaffetz, 
R-Utah, chairman of the House Oversight Committee, echoing a letter 
he sent this week with Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., to city officials 
warning of legal action and ordering the district to turn over 
documentation on any employees involved with putting the law into effect.

On Thursday, the difficulty in detecting a pot-infused sea change in 
the city was not surprising given that selling the drug in the city 
remains illegal, and that any plants, which are permitted to be grown 
at home (six only and only three of them mature) would be hard to see 
through the snow on the window panes. Residents are not permitted to 
smoke in public or on federal land, so any smoke wafting along the 
Potomac was no less or more than it would have been Wednesday.

What is more, the district already decriminalized possession of small 
amounts of marijuana last year, making the ability for residents 21 
and older now to legally possess 2 ounces a bit of a snore, 
statutorily speaking.

"The fact is that Initiative 71 is an incremental change from the 
previous D.C. law that decriminalized small amounts of marijuana," 
Michael Czin, a spokesman for Mayor Muriel Bowser, said in an email.

Some Republican House members said they would ask the Department of 
Justice to prevent the legalization of marijuana in the district, 
which approved the law in a referendum passed overwhelmingly last fall.

"The district is on a slippery slope to becoming Amsterdam," Chaffetz 
said. "We are going to appeal to the U.S. attorney. We want to see 
the law enforced."

Bowser said Wednesday that the city would put its own law into effect 
and that Congress should "not be so concerned about overturning what 
seven out of 10 voters said should be the law."

The Justice Department has made clear it is not interested in 
interfering. "The U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia 
has jurisdiction," said William Miller, a spokesman for that office. 
"We are following developments and have no further comment at this time."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom