Editor's Note: So many unanswered questions exists surrounding D.C.'s upcoming vote, including what this article explores as the potential to delay the ability to possess marijuana and grow it in the home, while legislators decide whether a regulatory system for the legal sale of marijuana needs to be in place. Perhaps one thing at a time is the best approach, letting the voters speak out (which they have been doing) for what they want, and letting the current initiative gain traction (through implementation) while a bill regarding a possible regulatory system is put into place.
D.C. voters are likely to legalize marijuana possession in the District next month. But it could be many more months, perhaps a year or more, before residents would be able to legally purchase non-medicinal marijuana.
And in the interim, the organizers of the ballot initiative – which issupported by nearly two-thirds of likely voters, according to recent polls – are warning lawmakers not to delay its basic provisions of the voter initiative, which would allow the possession of up to two ounces of marijuana and the home cultivation of as many as six cannabis plants.
But D.C. Council members – who have the power to modify the initiative, delay it or overturn it entirely – appear determined to move forward carefully, in keeping with their previous efforts to implement a medical-marijuana initiative.
