D.C.'s Marijuana Decriminalization Bill Heads To Congress After Being Signed
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A bill to decriminalize less than an ounce of marijuana in D.C. was signed today by Mayor Vincent Gray, meaning it has just one last hurdle to jump before becoming law.
“This is a victory for the District and a victory for justice," Councilmember Tommy Wells (D-Ward 6), who introduced the bill with Marion Barry (Ward-8), said in a release. "This bill is a tremendous stride to end the disproportionate sociological and economic impact of marijuana arrests on African Americans - arrest that pull families apart and keep our residents from jobs, higher education and housing opportunities."
Under the bill, possessing less than an ounce of pot will be a civil offense punishable with a fine of $25. Smoking marijuana would still be a crime, but the maximum punishment would be reduced from a $1000 fine and six months in jail to 60 days in jail and a $500 fine.
A report from the American Civil Liberties Union found D.C.'s marijuana possession arrest rate in 2010 for African Americans was 846 per 100,000 people. While the white arrest rate was 185 per 100,000, the number of people who admitted to smoking marijuana was about equal regardless of race.
"Through this measure, D.C. has acknowledged that some well-intentioned drug laws can cause intolerable harm when they are enforced disproportionately against people of color," Patrice Sutton of the NAACP Washington, D.C. branch said in a release. "It is an important and notable first effort to include the voices of those who suffer the consequences of conviction, when assessing the full impact of criminal legislation."
The bill now heads to Congress for a 60-day review period. D.C. Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton has pledged to defend it to her colleagues.
“The District’s decriminalization law will have a beneficial effect,” Norton said in a statement today. “It strongly reinforces our priority work in the Congress - both in my D.C. Commission on Black Men and Boys and the Congressional Caucus on Black Men and Boys, which Representative Danny Davis and I founded last year. The law does not intend to encourage marijuana smoking, but to discourage the needless and disproportionate effect marijuana laws have on African American men and boys - criminal records that often affect them for the rest of their lives. While I do not expect Congress to interfere with D.C.’s right to pass a local law on marijuana decriminalization, just as seventeen states have already done, I will resolutely defend this right from any attempted congressional meddling.”
