Officials in Washington, D.C. are moving forward to implement marijuana legalization despite an attempt by Congress to overturn the measure the city’s voters approved by a huge margin in November.
On Tuesday, D.C. Council Chairman, Phil Mendelson, officially transmitted the initiative for a mandated 30-legislative-day congressional review period, a process which all local laws passed by the District must go through. If Congress doesn’t pass a resolution of disapproval, which would need to be signed by President Obama, possession of up to two ounces of marijuana and cultivation of up to six plants would become legal in the nation’s capital on February 26.
But Congress has already tried to stop the measure, which was approved by 70 percent of D.C. voters, from taking effect through other means. A budget bill passed late last year contains language preventing D.C. from spending any money to “enact” laws that lower the penalties from marijuana. But, because the voter-passed initiative had already been certified by the city’s Board of Elections by the time the Congressional bill was signed into law, local officials took the position that the measure was already enacted.
