cannabisnews.com: Marijuana Issue on The Ballot for D.C.
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Marijuana Issue on The Ballot for D.C.
Posted by CN Staff on August 07, 2014 at 06:12:03 PT
By Andrea Noble, The Washington Times
Source: Washington Times
Washington, D.C. -- D.C. residents will vote on legalizing the recreational use and possession of marijuana when they head to the polls in November. The D.C. Board of Elections voted unanimously Wednesday to allow the ballot initiative to go before voters.If approved, Initiative 71 would allow an adult over the age of 21 to possess up to 2 ounces of marijuana and to grow up to six plants in his or her home. However, it would not legalize the sale of marijuana.
The board determined that 27,688 of the 57,000 petition signatures submitted by activists for the initiative were valid. Supporters were required to collect 22,500 valid signatures, representing at least 5 percent of registered voters in at least five of the city’s eight wards, to qualify for the ballot, according to the D.C. Board of Elections.“It is clear from the number of signatures the campaign was able to submit that the citizens of the District would like to have a say in reforming the marijuana laws of the District,” said Malik Burnett, D.C. policy manager for Drug Policy Action.This year, the District removed criminal penalties for possession of small amounts of marijuana. Lawmakers cited the disproportionate rate at which blacks were being arrested for marijuana use compared to whites as a reason for decriminalization.An study by the American Civil Liberties Union found that in 2010, 91 percent of those arrested for marijuana use were black, despite evidence that blacks and whites use marijuana at similar rates.“It is great that we have decriminalized marijuana in the District of Columbia,” said Adam Eidinger, chairman of DC Cannabis Campaign. “Unfortunately, if we are going to replace arrests with tickets, discrimination will continue, but voting ‘yes’ on 71 eliminates the tickets and brings discrimination to an end.”Residents in Alaska and Oregon also are expected to vote on legalization initiatives this year. Recreational pot use is currently legal in Washington state and Colorado.Even if District residents approve the referendum effort, the initiative may face further scrutiny.Republican members of Congress have attacked both the District’s decriminalization and legalization efforts. Rep. Andy Harris of Maryland tried to block the city’s decriminalization law from taking effect by adding an amendment to a spending bill that would have prevented the District from spending money on efforts to loosen drug laws.Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton, a Democrat and the District’s nonvoting congressional representative, said Wednesday she intends to fight any further efforts to prevent the District from voting on the initiative.She noted that Congress in 1998 attempted to block District residents from voting on an initiative to legalize the use of medical marijuana. The ballot measure was passed, but Congress, using a budget rider, blocked the start of the District’s medical marijuana program for more than a decade.“We will not let history repeat itself,” Ms. Norton said.Source: Washington Times (DC)Author: Andrea Noble, The Washington TimesPublished: August 6, 2014Copyright: 2014 The Washington Times, LLC Website: http://www.washtimes.com/Contact: letters washingtontimes.com URL: http://drugsense.org/url/iewLwOUeCannabisNews -- Cannabis Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/cannabis.shtml 
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Comment #6 posted by Hope on August 08, 2014 at 09:45:05 PT
Seeing all the truth... all the righteous news...
with great joy and relief, a hideous "mountain" crumbling and falling into the sea. I was thinking, "Please, let this prohibition end before anyone else gets killed because of it."Then I saw this morning about the two deaths in Fresno. But thankfully, it was the bad guys... masquerading as the other "bad" guys. Still... even they might not have died if it was totally legal and wasn't worth it's weight in gold because of prohibition.http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/08/08/california-marijuana-robbery/13761175/Damn prohibition. No more deaths. Get it done. Get this prohibition over with!
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Comment #5 posted by kaptinemo on August 07, 2014 at 15:16:28 PT:
The prohibs are risking a great deal, now
They are getting backed into a corner daily. If they fail to heed a very obvious warning, they may find themselves on the business end of the very same racial stick they've used to beat minorities with all these decades.The DrugWar was and is demonstrably, intentionally racist, its inception and implementation has made that abundantly clear. The arrest records show that without doubt. For the prohibs in Congress to attempt to thwart the expressed will of the people this time by trying to use tissue-paper thin legal sleight-of-hand is to fall headfirst into a political buzz-saw. A lot has changed, despite prohib denial of the reality. How much it will change will be demonstrated come November.
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Comment #4 posted by runruff on August 07, 2014 at 08:56:22 PT
Restrictions!
The restrictions of today is the stuff of humor tomorrow!Wait until society sees what cannabis is like in our culture. The only restrictions will be a tax here and there. Restrictions are the fingernails with which the various industries are hanging on. It will be harmful to competing industries for DC to grow and possess but if a free market were allowed think how this would hit many who now profit on prohibition? As the super plant becomes more normalized and mainstream, restrictions will fall away like fenders on a model-T! Just watch! 
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Comment #3 posted by Hope on August 07, 2014 at 08:33:58 PT
How legal is something you can possess
But, you can't buy it or sell it?
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Comment #2 posted by runruff on August 07, 2014 at 08:11:06 PT
 Ms. Norton said.
“We will not let history repeat itself,”! She'll be a daisy if she does. Not like the pizza I had for dinner, it repeated it's self all night long!
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Comment #1 posted by Oleg the Tumor on August 07, 2014 at 08:11:01 PT
Cla-ass… Cla-ass… Cla-ass . . . (!)
"Republican members of Congress have attacked both the District’s decriminalization and legalization efforts. Rep. Andy Harris of Maryland tried to block the city’s decriminalization law from taking effect by adding an amendment to a spending bill that would have prevented the District from spending money on efforts to loosen drug laws."It will be interesting to see how the foreign press reports this to their domestic audience, especially in places like France, where Uncle Sam isn't exactly everybody's favorite uncle anymore.Here we have the residents of our nation's Capitol, plainly and clearly expressing their will via the ballot, while their legislators find themselves debating whether or not they (the residents) should even be allowed to speak!Congress has been reduced to playing Sr. Mary Elephant on that old Cheech and Chong album, but they can't seem to get the last "Shut up!" in sideways now.
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