How one congressman could stop DC decriminalization

Monday, December 1,2014
By Leland Rucker

We should get some indication of how the new Republican Congress feels about cannabis when it convenes in January. The District of Columbia intends to offer Initiative 71, its recent law decriminalizing marijuana possession, to the new Congress as soon as it is seated. The resolution was passed by almost 70 percent of District voters (which should give the new Congress some indication of what people closest to them think of the government-sponsored Drug War).

Congress then has 30 days to act or it automatically becomes law. The two branches could pass a joint resolution (ha ha!) that would disallow the initiative, or both could vote to stop money intended to implement the program, effectively ending it that way. It’s possible, but highly unlikely since that’s only been done once before.

Still, the District’s delegate to Congress, Eleanor Holmes Norton, called a press conference last week urging members to lay off after Maryland Rep. Andy Harris told the Washington Post that he would do everything in his power to stop the law from going into effect.
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This method of attaching amendments to other bills to stall District legislation, sneaky though it is, has precedent. The District voted to approve medical marijuana in 1998, but the attachment process helped delay the opening of medical stores until 2013. That’s 14 years of pure Congressional obstructionism.