Photo by futureatlas.com
If any members of Congress want to block Initiative 71—D.C.’s marijuana legalization ballot initiative that overwhelmingly passed on November 4—they better be ready to receive all hell from Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton.
Not long after Initiative 71 passed on election night, Norton said in a release that anyone who stands in the way of marijuana legalization in D.C. will “get the fight of their lives,” and today, that fight begins. Amid comments from Rep. Andy Harris (R-MD), who said he’ll try and overturn Initiative 71, Norton will spend up to an hour on the House floor today to defend the initiative.
“Unlike the four states that recently legalized marijuana, we are preparing for the possibility of multiple attacks on marijuana legalization in the District, first in this session and then in the upcoming 114th Congress,” Norton said in a release. “If D.C. were a state like Oregon, which legalized cannabis in November as D.C. did, there would be no such meddling.”
But when it comes to support for Initiative 71 in the House and Senate, not all Republicans side with Harris. Yesterday, Norton held a bipartisan press conference yesterday in the U.S. Capitol that showed Initiative 71 has allies in Congress. Among them, Rand Paul, who is basically OK with legalizing marijuana.
“Yesterday’s bipartisan press conference showed that we have allies in the Congress,” Norton said. “In addition, yesterday evening, I spoke briefly on the floor about the racial justice effects of interference because 9 out of 10 arrested for marijuana possession are African Americans, although Blacks and Whites use marijuana at the same rates.”
In addition to defending Initiative 71, Norton plans to update the House on the progress of D.C.’s quest for statehood and “how to keep the progress going” as we prepare for the 114th Congress.
But while the threat of Initiative 71’s future on the federal level is still months away, there might be some trouble for it on a local level. In her first press conference following the election, mayor-elect Muriel Bowser said that she doesn’t support marijuana legalization without a tax and regulate system in effect.
“I don’t think Bowser understands the Initiative fully…that this can come before recreational sales, as she is talking about,” Adam Eidinger, the Initiative’s primary author, told DCist outside of Norton’s press conference yesterday. “That’s her agenda, to open up stores, and she thinks it’s the fair thing to do because people don’t have a place to buy; not everyone can grow it. That’s fine, but people are capable of growing it, and sharing it—not selling it I want her to really understand this better.”
Regardless, Council Chairman Phil Mendelson said he plans to submit the initiative to Congress in January. “If Chairman Mendelson’s opinion on this has changed, I’d be really surprised,” Eidinger said.
