cannabisnews.com: Don't Let Congress Undermine Democracy in DC 





Don't Let Congress Undermine Democracy in DC 
Posted by FoM on September 25, 1999 at 09:39:20 PT
ACLU Action Alert
Source: American Civil Liberties Union
The President is deciding in the next few days whether to sign or veto the District of Columbia Appropriations bill. A veto of the bill will let DC residents and their elected officials debate and decide for themselves the same policy questions that each of the fifty states debate and decide for themselves. 
The President should make clear that he will not sign the bill until Congress strikes two amendments that will undermine the District's already limited democracy. Specifically, a new amendment introduced by Rep. Bob Barr, R-GA, would continue to undermine the democratic process in DC by trying to stop a voter referendum that permits physicians to authorize the use of marijuana for the relief of extremely painful symptoms in their patients. The legislation also contains an anti-needle exchange amendment introduced by Rep. Todd Tiahrt, R-KS, that would forbid the District of Columbia from spending even its own money on needle exchange programs. Both amendments undermine the District of Columbia's fragile democracy and must be eliminated. Support Democracy in the District of ColumbiaIf the President signs the D.C. appropriations bill, Congress will be permitted to continue its unprecedented assault on the democratic process. The Barr amendment, for example, attacks a voter initiative that permits physicians to authorize the use of marijuana for the relief of extremely painful symptoms in their patients. The referendum passed with 69 percent support of the DC voters--and won in every one of the District's 140 precincts. Widespread evidence demonstrates that marijuana can be used medically to ease the pain of people with diseases like AIDS and cancer. But the Barr amendment is so vaguely written that it would place into question the ability of doctors to prescribe currently legal prescription drugs like Marinol, which is a tetrahydrocannabinols derivative. Good public health should come first. At least seven federally funded scientific studies have determined that needle exchange programs can help stop the spread of HIV/AIDS without promoting drug use. Barring funding for the exchange of used hypodermic needles for clean ones does nothing to stop drug use, but it does quicken the spread of HIV and AIDS. Newshawk: CryoteTAKE ACTION!Last updated or verified on September 24, 1999http://www.aclu.org/action/dcmed106.htmlFax President Clinton and your Members of Congress Today!Medical Marijuana Initiatives - 9/25/99http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread3021.shtml
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Comment #2 posted by FoM on September 25, 1999 at 21:51:19 PT:
Congress At Complete Loss To Absorb
Sat, 25 Sep 1999 Standard-Times Website: http://www.s-t.com/ Author: Marianne Means WASHINGTON Why are we not surprised? Referendum results illicitly suppressed by Congress for a year and only now made public by court order show that the District of Columbia voted overwhelmingly last fall to legalize the use of marijuana to ease the suffering of seriously ill patients. It wasn't even close. The measure passed by 69 percent to 31 percent. Every precinct in the nation's capital, from pricey Georgetown to rundown Anacostia, went for it. The outcome is what conservative Republicans had feared. That is why they refused to authorize funds to count the ballots, arrogantly keeping the electorate in the dark. Congress loves to push the nation's capital around, dictating what its local officials can and cannot do. Congress is free to do that because it has legislative and financial authority over the city, although our worthy solons clearly exceeded their power by denying us, the D.C. voters, the results of a democratic election.A federal judge ruled that Congress violated our First Amendment right to express an opinion because no one was allowed to hear it. Congressional oversight was okay with most of us when Marion Barry, convicted of possessing cocaine, was mayor. He was a major embarrassment nobody could trust. But the city currently has as its mayor Anthony Williams, a hard-working, honest bureaucrat who is rapidly restoring administrative order and even filling the city's infamous potholes. Yet Congress still thinks it knows what is best for Washington. To heck with the voters. Capitol Hill Republicans reacted angrily to the referendum, promising to block any administrative move to decriminalize pot for medical purposes. Current D.C. law makes possession of marijuana a misdemeanor punishable by up to six months in jail and a $1,000 fine. Getting caught is not going to ruin your life. But you won't like it. The pioneering concept embraced by D.C. voters is highly controversial. A year ago, the House approved by 310 to 93 a nonbinding resolution opposing legalization of marijuana for medicinal use, deliberately preempting the then-silent election outcome. However sympathetic members may have been to the agonies of the seriously ill, they were more interested in guarding against opponents who might accuse them of being soft on all drugs, including cocaine.The Clinton White House stands with Congress on this. Politics is politics. Voters in six states have approved similar legalization measures in the last three years, permitting the possession, use, cultivation and distribution of pot if recommended by a doctor for a serious illness. Advocates are convinced that marijuana can make life better for patients who have AIDS, cancer and other devastating illnesses, and there is anecdotal evidence to support their theory. Its usefulness is still largely unproved. Yet how can it ever be proved or disproved unless there is a widespread lifting of the criminal restrictions that prevent ill people who are not hopheads from trying it? Inevitable doubts arise about control. Will marijuana really be limited to medicinal purposes or will half the population suddenly invent headaches that sucker some doctor into prescribing a legal high? Such ambiguities do not bother the leaders of the GOP majority in Congress. Deep in their conservative bones, they automatically reject the whole idea. They cannot override legal referendums in the states. After all, they keep lecturing us about the importance of handing federal power over to the states. But they can stick it to the District of Columbia, a colony that has been denied self-government. And they intend to do so. Immediately, Rep. Thomas Davis III, R-Va., chairman of the House committee that runs the city, said Congress was "determined" to block the measure. Mayor Williams, who supported the referendum, was not happy. But he controls no votes in Virginia or anywhere else. The odds are that Congress will again substitute its judgment for that of the capital's voters. It's an old story. But at least we stirred the pot. (Get it?) Maybe next time.Note: The author is a columnist for the Hearst Newspapers. She can be reached by e-mail at means hearstdc.com Copyright: 1999 The Standard-Times 
Congress At Complete Loss To Absorb
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Comment #1 posted by jdd on September 25, 1999 at 21:16:41 PT
Don't let Congress...
I e-mailed Rep. Barr the other day regarding his stance on the D.C. vote, and his support of the War on Drugs. I tried to show him the hypocrisy of his 'conservative' views of reducing the size of government, while at the same time increasing government by spending billions every year on the failed policies and bureaucracy (D.E.A., etc...)of the drug 'war'. I have not received a response. Maybe, since I don't live in Georgia, my opinion doesn't count, but he is spending my tax dollars, too. I hope Clinton does veto this bill, although I doubt that he (as well as most politicians) would dare allow too much autonomy without the Fed's interference. While I think the needle exchange should be financed by private organizations, as opposed to using tax dollars, that should be for the citizens of D.C. to decide. If anyone lives in Georgia, they should call, write, or e-mail Rep. Barr, and let him know that they see through his hypocrisy. The 10th amendment to the U.S. Constitution does not give the Federal government the authority to make drug laws. Mr. Barr, the so-called constitutionalist, should know that!!
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