The House endorsed a landmark retreat in the nation's decades-long war on drugs Friday, voting to remove marijuana from the federal schedule of controlled substances and provide for the regulation and taxation of legal cannabis sales. The vote was 228 to 164 and was the first time either chamber of Congress has voted on the issue of federally decriminalizing cannabis. The measure is not expected to pass into law, and, because of political skittishness, it was voted on only after the November election and more than a year after it emerged from committee. But the House took a stand at a moment of increasing momentum, with voters last month opting to liberalize marijuana laws in five states - including three that President Trump won handily. [continues 1473 words]
Officials Estimate Potential Revenue But Coming Vote Is on Possession, Not Sales If D.C. residents vote to legalize marijuana possession next week, it wouldn't just mean a sea change in drug policy in the nation's capital. It could also mean big business. A study by District financial officials shared Thursday with lawmakers estimates a legal D.C. cannabis market worth $130 million a year. The ballot initiative voters will see Tuesday does not allow for the legal sale of marijuana - only the possession and home cultivation of small amounts - but D.C. Council members gathered Thursday to hear testimony about what a legal sales framework might look like. [continues 655 words]
Some Want Rules in Place First to Avoid Uncertainty D.C. voters are likely to legalize marijuana possession in the District next month. But it could be many more months, perhaps a year or more, before residents would be able to legally purchase non-medicinal marijuana. And in the interim, the organizers of the ballot initiative - which is supported by nearly two thirds of likely voters, according to recent polls - are warning lawmakers not to delay its basic provisions of the voter initiative, which would allow the possession of up to two ounces of marijuana and the home cultivation of as many as six cannabis plants. [continues 809 words]
District residents who have been convicted of nonviolent marijuana offenses could apply to have those criminal records sealed under a bill granted initial approval by the D.C. Council on Tuesday. The change is being considered amid a period of great upheaval for the city's marijuana laws, which have gone from strict prohibition to the cusp of legalization within a span of months. In March, lawmakers voted to limit the penalties for minor cases of possession to a civil fine no more serious than a parking ticket. Next month, city voters will consider whether to legalize the possession of up to two ounces of marijuana for personal use. [continues 203 words]
D.C. residents will vote in November on whether to legalize marijuana use in the nation's capital after elections officials decided Wednesday to place the question on the ballot. The three-member D.C. Board of Elections voted unanimously Wednesday morning to approve the ballot initiative, certifying that activists gathered the tens of thousands of voter signatures necessary to qualify for the Nov. 4 general election ballot. Several of those activists attended Wednesday's meeting and cheered the vote, which moves the District closer to joining Colorado and Washington as the only places in the nation where marijuana possession and cultivation are fully legal. [continues 694 words]
Chief of Officers' Union Calls Policy a 'Convoluted Mess' On Wednesday, a D.C. police officer who caught someone carrying a small amount of marijuana was required to launch his suspect on an onerous journey through the criminal justice system - possibly involving handcuffs, fingerprinting and forensic analysis. On Thursday, that same officer faces the simpler task of pulling out a ticket book and checking a box: littering, or possession of marijuana? A lengthy civic debate over how to handle the most minor of drug offenses culminated at midnight Wednesday when a marijuana decriminalization law passed by the D.C. Council this spring completed a 60-day congressional review period and took effect. The advent of the new law, spurred by reports of stark racial disparities in marijuana arrests, prompts a sea change in how police handle one of the most common violations they encounter. Under new orders set to take effect Thursday, police can no longer take action upon simply smelling the odor of marijuana. Nor can they demand that a person found in possession of up to 1 ounce produce identification. [continues 855 words]
If you're a District resident planning to vacation in the Maryland havens of Ocean City or St. Michaels this summer, Mayor Vincent C. Gray (D) and some D.C. activists would prefer you choose Rehoboth Beach, Del., or Chincoteague Island, Va., instead. A week after Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md.) successfully attached an amendment to a House budget bill that would overturn the city's marijuana decriminalization law, Gray and the District's largest voting-rights advocacy group said city residents would be better off vacationing somewhere besides Harris's district, which includes all of Maryland's Eastern Shore. [continues 681 words]
Council Passed Measure Removing Criminal Penalties Republican members of a House Oversight subcommittee sharply questioned the District's move to decriminalize the possession of small amounts of marijuana Friday but gave only tentative indications that they might try to overturn the legislation. While city officials and autonomy advocates decried the hearing - the first one solely devoted to a local D.C. law in over a decade, said Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D) - it demonstrated that conservative federal lawmakers are increasingly unwilling to intervene in the District's liberal policymaking. [continues 771 words]
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. [continues 526 words]
The 15-year struggle to legalize medical marijuana in the District ended like this: A 51-year-old Northwest resident entered a North Capitol Street rowhouse Monday evening and emerged 90 minutes later with slightly less than a half-ounce of street-legal, high-grade, D.C.-grown cannabis. Shortly before 6 p.m., Alonzo walked into the high-security sales room of the Capital City Care dispensary with two store employees to consummate the city's first legal marijuana deal in at least 75 years. He purchased about $250 worth of three strains of cannabis. [continues 833 words]
D.C. Store Closes in Wake of Oct. Police Raid Adam Eidinger stands next to the wall and gives it a good, solid knock. "Hemp board," he says. "First retail store to be built out of it. It's held up remarkably well." Eidinger and business partner Alan Amsterdam imported 2,000 pounds of the stuff from China while building Capitol Hemp in an Adams Morgan basement four years ago. Since then, hempboard shelves have held products also made of non-psychoactive strains of industrial cannabis - - soap, paper, shoes, coats, hats. Dog beds and wood stain, even. [continues 632 words]
District liquor regulators will play a lead role in the city's new medical marijuana program when it debuts Jan. 1, according to draft rules issued Friday by Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D). Under the regulations, the city health department would be responsible for registering legal marijuana users. But the licensing and oversight of the facilities that will grow and distribute medical cannabis would be handled by the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board and its enforcement arm, the Alcoholic Beverage Regulation Administration. The prospect of having the same regulators overseeing medical marijuana and liquor stores concerns advocates who have fought to have cannabis recognized as a medical treatment, not just as a drug for recreational use. [continues 805 words]
