Wednesday, February 25, 2015

Press Release: DC MARIJUANA LEGALIZATION TAKES EFFECT THURSDAY

Contact: Darby Beck                                                                                           For Immediate Release:

Darby.beck@leap.cc                                                                                                    February 25, 2015

415.823.5496


DC MARIJUANA LEGALIZATION TAKES EFFECT THURSDAY

Adult Possession, Home Cultivation Protected Under Initiative 71

DC Council Pushes for Retail Sales Despite Congress


Washington D.C. – A new marijuana legalization law will take effect in D.C. tomorrow

when adults 21 and older will be permitted to possess up to two ounces for personal use

and grow up to six plants (three of which can be mature). Public consumption, driving

under the influence, youth possession and any exchange of money for marijuana outside

of the existing medical marijuana dispensaries in the District, will still be prohibited.

“Legalization has come to Congress’s backyard,” said Maj. Neill Franklin (Ret.),

executive director of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP), an organization of

criminal justice professionals opposed to the drug war. “The only question now is will

they be the leaders their constituents voted for and allow the DC Council to tax and

regulate the product, or will they prop up the criminal market by keeping sales

underground?”

Initiative 71 passed overwhelmingly with more than 70% of the vote. Despite some

Congressional opposition to taxing and regulating recreational marijuana sales, the D.C.

Council is pushing forward a legalization bill that responsibly addresses the public safety

issues associated with marijuana regulation. The Marijuana Legalization and Regulation

Act of 2015 has already been discussed in public hearings. A majority of the testimony

was in favor of the bill, and made a variety of arguments such as focusing law

enforcement on more important crimes, reducing the racially disparate impact of

marijuana enforcement, reducing youth access to marijuana, generating revenue for the

city, and creating new legal jobs for D.C. residents.

Under the law that takes effect tomorrow, possession or smoking on federal property

(which amounts to 26% of the land in D.C.) remains a federal crime. Caution should be

taken by those traveling with the permitted amount of marijuana to avoid federal

property. District residents are advised to review a map of federal land and some basic

rules in order to comply with the complex interplay of federal and District laws.

The spending bill passed by Congress in December for this fiscal year denies D.C. any

funding to enact marijuana legalization. But because D.C. attorneys have determined that

Initiative 71 requires no funding to implement, with the Congressional review period

required by the D.C. home rule law about to expire, the law is set to take effect at 12:01

a.m. Feb. 26.

LEAP is committed to ending the failed drug policies that have fueled dangerous

underground markets and gang violence, fostered corruption and racially disparate law

enforcement, and largely ignored the public health crisis of addiction, diverting the penal

system's attention from more important violent crime, all while spending almost one

trillion dollars over the past 40 years.

1 comment:

  1. Interesting concept: It takes no funds to enforce a law that simply says you CAN do something. The only expense will be to enforce things that you already could not do, e.g., sell marijuana to minors. So I agree, implementing this law will take no new funding at all.

    ReplyDelete

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...