D.C. AG Says Legalizing Marijuana Won’t End In Arrests

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DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA:  Despite threats from Congress, D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine says no one will be getting arrested for legalizing marijuana within the District.

“I don’t think Mayor [Muriel] Bowser, nor any member of the council, nor any civil servant member in the District of Columbia who had anything to do with the passage of the responsible Initiative 71 will be locked up, nor should they,” said Racine on NewsChannel 8’s News Talk.

The attorney general explained that the District had enacted a very limited legalization of marijuana.

“What it legalized was the use of marijuana and possession of marijuana in one’s home,” stated Racine.  “It would also allow for the growing of marijuana, six plants, three of them can be mature, also in one’s home.”

 

D.C. Legalizes Marijuana Despite Threats From Congress

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DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA:  Possessing small amounts of marijuana is now legal in the nation’s capital, even after some members of Congress threatened prison time for D.C. Council members.

Mayor Muriel Bowser and other officials issued a response to Capitol Hill during a briefing Wednesday afternoon, saying the city would move forward with the law.

Bowser said the city and Republicans in Congress disagree about whether the city is allowed to legalize pot but those legal differences can be resolved without either side bullying or threatening the other.

“We believe that we are acting lawfully,” Bowser said.

 

D.C. Mayor Threatened With Prison Over Marijuana Law

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DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA:  Just hours before voter-passed marijuana legalization is set to take effect in Washington, D.C., top Congressional Republicans are warning city officials not to move forward.

“You can go to prison for this,” Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT), chairman of the U.S. House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, told The Washington Post. “We’re not playing a little game here.”

Chaffetz and another Republican lawmaker, Rep. Mark Meadows (NC), chairman of the appropriations subcommittee that handles the D.C. budget, sent a letter late Tuesday to District Mayor Muriel Bowser warning that, “If you decide to move forward tomorrow with the legalization of marijuana in the District, you will be doing so in knowing and willful violation of the law.”

Initiative 71, which voters approved in November by a 70 percent to 30 percent margin, is currently undergoing a standard 30-day review period during which time Congress could pass a resolution of disapproval to effectively veto the law.