Pubdate: Sat, 28 Feb 2015
Source: Trentonian, The (NJ)
Copyright: 2015 The Trentonian
Contact:  http://www.trentonian.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1006
Note: Editorial from The Washington Post

MEMBERS OF CONGRESS THREATEN DC OFFICIALS WITH JAIL FOR FOLLOWING VOTER MANDATE

Amid all the uncertainties surrounding the legalization of marijuana 
in the District of Columbia, a few things are clear. Among them is 
that Congress has better things to do than meddle in the purely local 
affairs of the District. When it does interfere, it ends up making a 
mess of matters. Apparently, however, there are no bounds to the 
grandstanding of opportunistic politicians on Capitol Hill.

That District officials and employees have been threatened with jail, 
by no less than the chairman of a powerful congressional committee, 
for their goodfaith efforts to follow a voter mandate is utterly 
inexcusable. Such a spectacle - and the fact that the District is 
under congressional attack for undertaking virtually the same steps 
as its counterparts in Colorado, Washington and, most recently, 
Alaska - should bring home to the rest of the country the need to 
redress the historic injustice of the city's limited political powers.

At issue is a disagreement between D.C. officials and key House 
Republicans over the legality of Initiative 71, a measure 
overwhelmingly approved by voters in November to legalize possession 
by adults of small amounts of marijuana and allow home cultivation. 
City officials announced the measure would go into effect at 12:01 
a.m. Thursday following the mandatory 30-day congressional review 
period in which it went unchallenged; House Republicans have argued 
that a rider attached to last year's omnibus appropriations bill 
blocks implementation.

"If you decide to move forward tomorrow with the legalization of 
marijuana in the District, you will be doing so in knowing and 
willful violation of the law," read a letter to Mayor Muriel Bowser, 
D, signed by Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, chairman of the House 
Oversight and Government Reform Committee, and Rep. Mark Meadows, 
R-N.C., chairman of the subcommittee that handles D.C. affairs. Just 
in case that wasn't clear, Chaffetz said in a subsequent interview, 
"You can go to prison for this. We're not playing a little game here."

Unquestionably legal opinion differs about whether the language in 
the congressional rider actually prevents the implementation of the 
initiative. But Chaffetz's charge that city officials are thumbing 
their nose at the law is completely without merit. Officials were 
acting on the advice of counsel, including Attorney General Karl 
Racine, who concluded that the rider did not prevent the initiative 
from taking effect. So cautious have city officials been that they 
canceled hearings called to examine regulation and sale of marijuana 
for fear of running afoul of federal law.

Therein lies more damage to the District. Issues that were not 
addressed by the voter initiative remain unresolved because 
congressional Republicans, in using the District to score political 
points, couldn't care less about the consequences. Yet they dare to 
say it is the District that is playing games.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom