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It’s been over a week since Maryland Rep. Andy Harris successfully attached an amendment to a House budget bill to block funding for D.C.’s recently passed marijuana decriminalization law and local officials are still pretty peeved.
As a form of protest, Mayor Vince Gray said yesterday that D.C. residents should boycott visiting Maryland’s Eastern Shore—the Congressional District Harris represents—because of his meddling in local affairs, the Post reports. “I don’t think we should support someone who doesn’t support us, who doesn’t support democracy, period,” Gray said, before calling Harris’ actions “hypocrisy at its worst.”
Joining Gray in urging D.C. residents to stay away from Maryland’s Eastern Shore is DC Vote—a nonprofit advocacy group fighting to get full Congressional voting rights for the District. “If you care about D.C. equality, we ask you to not patronize vacation destinations in Rep. Harris’ district,” DC Vote Executive Director Kimberly Perry said in a release. “We might not be able to vote in Congress, but we can all vote with our wallets.”
But if Gray’s tactic is to rattle Harris enough to get him to withdraw the amendment, it’s not working. In a statement to the Post, a representative from Harris’ office says that “spending the weekend on the beautiful, family friendly Eastern Shore is more important than increasing drug use by D.C. teenagers.” Harris’ office also attacked Gray’s recent Democratic primary loss, saying “I think D.C. voters showed on Election Day the value they place on what the mayor has to say. I only wish some D.C. politicians cared as much about providing a quality education to D.C. students as they do about decriminalizing marijuana.”
Moreover, local officials of Worcester County, where the popular tourist destination town of Ocean City lies, say that there’s probably a better solution to fight back against Harris than this. From the Post:
“There’s got to be a better way to hit Andy Harris where he’s going to feel it,” said Lisa Challenger, tourism director for Worcester County, home to Ocean City. “We’ve got lots and lots of mom-and-pop businesses that are privately owned. . . . I understand what D.C. officials are trying to say and do, but it doesn’t make any sense to us local folks here on the front line trying to increase revenues and get visitors here.”
D.C.’s marijuana decriminalization law is set to take effect on July 17th. Although the House Appropriations Committee approved the amendment to block funding, it still needs to get approved by the full House of Representatives, the Senate, and the President. And, even if that happens, there’s the possibility that the amendment could actually enable de facto legalization of marijuana in the District.
