Al Jazeera Ameirca - Congress’ 2015 spending bill could defy the will of hundreds of thousands of Washington, D.C. residents who voted in November in favor of Initiative 71, which legalizes recreational marijuana.
The House and Senate, which control the budget for the District of Columbia, decided to include a rider in the spending bill, which allocates funds for the next fiscal year. The rider aims to stop D.C. lawmakers from using federal funds to “enact” the marijuana legalization law, set to go into effect by May.
But legalization advocates say there is still hope that Initiative 71 can proceed, depending on the interpretation of language in the current spending bill. They say the measure was already “enacted” — the moment voters approved it this fall by a 70 percent margin.
Even if Initiative 71 falls flat completely, Robert Capecchi, D.C. policy director of the Marijuana Policy Project, which seeks to lift laws against marijuana, said the district’s lawmakers could direct the Metropolitan Police Department not to arrest people for possessing small amounts of pot.
“They could just ignore it and act like 71 is in effect, regardless of what Congress says. I think it would be a strong statement for D.C. home rule,” Capecchi said.
Initiative 71 was “enacted when it was approved overwhelmingly by voters in November and was self-executing” Norton said. “Therefore, it can be argued that the legalization of small amounts of marijuana can proceed.”
D.C.’s home rule laws, put in place in 1973 after Washingtonians protested for greater representation, give the district’s citizens the right to vote for mayor, city council and U.S. president. They also vote for a congressional delegate, who is allowed to address fellow legislators and introduce legislation but can’t vote herself — so other legislators from far-flung parts of the country have final say over the city’s budget. Two shadow senators have even less power.
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