Editor's Note: If you're still a bit confused about what's happening with legalization of marijuana in D.C., you're not alone. This article does a good job of spelling out where things stand, although the area in which they stand is a bit murky (and will be subject to how the wording in the Omnibus spending bill is interpreted and how Congress reacts when Initiative 71 is submitted for review in January.)
District of Columbia officials and activists are grappling with a new thorn in their sides: an amendment attached to a year-end spending package targeting marijuana legalization in the District.
The “cromnibus” was passed by Congress with last-minute and late-night Senate votes over the weekend, and is en route to the president, where it will be signed into law. Though the bill contains riders in the bill aimed at a variety of D.C. social policies now considered routine, an amendment aimed at the District’s marijuana policy has fired up D.C. activists.
The intent of the amendment was clear after the text was released Dec. 9: The rider was supposed to block an initiative to legalize small amounts of marijuana, which was approved by nearly 70 percent of D.C. voters in November via Initiative 71, while leaving decriminalization alone.
House Appropriations Chairman Harold Rogers, R-Ky., and ranking member Nita M. Lowey both posted in their initial online summaries that the amendment would prohibit federal and local funds from implementing the referendum.
