Photo by Juliana Brint.

As Congress reviews D.C.’s marijuana decriminalization law, legalization activists in the District aren’t being deterred by the threat of having it blocked, as one Congressman said he will consider.

Quite the opposite, actually, as the Drug Policy Alliance, a national drug law reform advocacy group, announced yesterday that they’ve hired a new full-time organizer who will work to advance marijuana legalization in D.C.

Dr. Malik Burnett, a physician advocate from Montego Bay, Jamaica by way of Atlanta, Ga., will be working exclusively to help legalization efforts in the District, both with the D.C. Cannabis Campaign—which is currently collecting signatures for a legalization ballot initiative—and the D.C. Council. “Marijuana policy reform is part of the emerging picture of civil rights reform in the 21st Century,” Burnett says. “The District of Columbia has historically been a leader in enacting progressive policies, and the legalization of marijuana will go a long way towards reframing drug policy around a public health framework.”

Right now, Burnett says he and the DPA will be working hard with the D.C. Cannabis Campaign to help collect signatures for their ballot initiative before the July 7th deadline. The ballot initiative — which the Cannabis Campaign introduced back in January and started collecting signatures for late last month — is a crucial piece to the legalization effort, Burnett thinks. “[It’s] is essentially a space where the will of the people can be heard at the ballot box,” he says. But given the short amount of time they had to collect signatures, if they don’t hit the requisite 25,000 signatures by July 7th, it won’t be a death knell in the legalization effort. Burnett says there’s a few things that could happen to keep the movement alive.

One of those is a recent marijuana legalization bill introduced by Councilmember David Grosso (I-At Large), which proposes the taxing and regulation of marijuana in the District. “We’re going to be working with the Council to support David Grosso’s tax and regulate bill,” Burnett says, “and see if we can provide some sort of comprehensive tax and regulate strategies at the legislative level.”

Grosso’s legislation and the D.C. Cannabis Campaign’s ballot initiative aren’t two competing legalization efforts, and can certainly work together to advance legalization efforts in the District. That’s where Burnett and the DPA’s role is crucial. “The ballot initiative is essentially a space where the will of the people can be heard at the ballot box,” Burnett says. “And then you have the tax and regulate legislation that [Grosso] is putting forth at the … Council level, and is something that could be looked at as an opportunity for the Council members to expand their will at the ballot box and create and actual regulatory framework for the issue.”

Burnett is also hoping to work with other ballot initiatives to collect signatures to get the D.C. Cannabis Campaign’s initiative on the general election ballot in November. “The minimum wage initiative is also looking to gather signatures to be placed on the November ballot,” he says. “Hopefully there’s an opportunity for both groups to work together to gather signatures so everyone will only have to vote once for all the various issues D.C. residents can vote for.”

Burnett says the goal is to have marijuana legalization in D.C. sometime between 2014 and 2015. “I hope that Congress will respect the D.C. people, both legislatively and at the voting level.”