D.C. Moves One Step Closer to Medical Marijuana
Tonight, MPP’s allies in the U.S. House of Representatives took a big step toward protecting medical marijuana patients in the District of Columbia.
For ten years, the D.C. spending bill has included an amendment that prevents the city from implementing a voter-approved medical marijuana initiative. Tonight, the House passed the 2010 version of the bill, wiping out the provision blocking medical marijuana.
This is a major step and likely signals ultimate victory for advocates in D.C. The spending bill will need to move through the remainder of the legislative process and be signed into law by President Obama before any changes will take effect.
Tagged with: Barr amendment and Medical Marijuana by the author
36 comments
While this is good, I’m assuming it will run into trouble in the senate, I hope not.
Is DC free to pass other legislative amendments as far as marijuana goes at this point? Could voters pass a decriminalization bill by ballot interniative or a council vote?
Hello Mr. Ben Morris & Blog Readers,
One step at a time is just fine with me, I never expect over night successes.
One step forward! Many more to come!
One foot in front of the other. One step forward at a time. No steps backwards. Onward Christian/Cannabis Soldier. One Tin Soldier Rides Away. Billy Jack.
I find it sadly funny that the seat of this nation’s power is so close to having Medical Marijuana, and yet the SAME government’s drug scheduling says that there are NO accepted uses for marijuana. Hypocrisy much? Not only that, the government has issued a patent for cannabinoids for medical uses. Why won’t they wake up and let everyone who needs it use it?
Our government is no longer run by the people’s vote. It is all controlled by lobbying efforts and sneaky politics. Those most familiar with the system manipulate it to their own advantage. Witness the fact that a vote to pass medical marijuana in 1998 in Washington DC passed with 69 percent in favor, which by any account, is a landslide victory, only to be wiped out by the Barr Amendment. This is not democracy and the voters had to be outraged. Not only that, Bob Barr later was hired by MPP to lobby for legalization! This is self interest in the extreme at the expense of countless arrests, prosecutions and prison/jail terms.
It boggles the mind.
One step closer.
Hey TEX @ 7…..Ya if people have been watching as of late,especially, they would plainly see that special interests andcorporation run this country now.
We’re one step closer to having the FDA regulate marijuana, something we’ll end up regretting.
It’s time to start really pushing decriminalization, including decriminalization of growing a few plants. We have medical marijuana in a few states, dispensaries that show that marijuana can be taxed and that not everyone will grow their own. If we keep pushing for medical marijuana we’re going to end up having it regulated by the FDA and they will overregulate it to death, make it all be crap only sold through pharmacies, and make it much harder for us to just get it legalized and treated similar to alcohol. If we could get possession and growing a little decriminalized that would help nonmedical users and medical users in states without medical marijuana laws, and it would help get us to the point where the people and the government say it’s time to just have legal commercial production and taxed sales.
@ TKDietz: How can it be FDA regulated if it’s not even legalized at Federal level let alone state level? So far, it has been the states that decide the legality of marijuana. To have it FDA regulated and approved means A LOT of things must have happened including:
* Scientific-based research that shows medicinal value as well as limited-to-no-harm for recreational use. (Needs government approval still…)
* Rescheduling or eliminating marijuana from the Schedule I of the Control Substance Act of 1970. (This one is tricky as it needs the first point completed)
* An amendment to the constitution similar to Alcohol Prohibition repeal in 1933, passed by congress and signed by the President (Basically, 50% + 1 vote – which may take a lot of convincing from the die-hard prohibitionists in congress)
I would say that decriminalization, as opposed to all out legalization, would not be enough. Case in point, many states including California decriminalize it yet folks still are punished, either by citation or arrest, if convicted of simple possession. Decriminalization doesn’t make sense because of it’s conflicting message: you don’t necessary go to jail but you still get punished for it b/c to some extent it’s still a crime. Decriminalization also means that marijuana is still ILLEGAL – and if something is illegal, it cannot be regulated by law…
Therefore:
Decriminalization
is
still
Prohibition.
#10 i agree with yah =) we need to full out legalize it.
Has anyone seen the new saynotopot.com website? It seems to be creating a mild stir. I’m thinking it’s in reaction to the progress as of late. Quite hokey.
@ #12 Jeremiah Bartholomew: Ah, another b.s. site. No worries. I’m almost certain it will be bombarded with things that’ll make it look real silly… you know stuff like Facts and Scientific Studies – things that Prohibitionists hate.
Take a look at this other silly site: http://www.change.org/drug_free_america_foundation_inc – 30 supporters since inception? Very sad. No worries friends. In this day in age, it’s hard to disguise utter nonsense as ‘truth’.
Keep up the fight everyone! This isn’t just about you or me or a small group of people. This is about saving the world, literally. The sooner we end Prohibition, the sooner we make up for 70+ years of lost time and progress.
This is interesting. If the bill ends up on President Obama desk, I hope he doesn’t veto it and tell the public that it sends a wrong message to children.
DC legalized it 11 years ago. They have to let them have their say.
Those “freedom loving” GOP members are sure to try to kill this attempt at democracy and freedom.
Update on the HR2943 bill:
We now have 9 Cosponsors [as of 2009-07-18] they are:
Rep. Tammy Baldwin [D-WI2]
Rep. Michael Capuano [D-MA8]
Rep. Maurice Hinchey [D-NY22]
Rep. Dennis Kucinich [D-OH10]
Rep. George Miller [D-CA7]
Rep. Ronald Paul [R-TX14]
Rep. Jared Polis [D-CO2]
Rep. Dana Rohrabacher [R-CA46]
Rep. Fortney Stark [D-CA13]
How ever the bill is still in the Referred to Committee phase. Remember to help get passed this phase we must get the others to support HR2943 and for those who are doing so as is lets send them a thank you for supporting HR2943 email.
I shall keep everyone updated as HR2943 continues to progress.
@ 17, Thanks for the update Jeremy R. I too have been following this bill for the past few weeks. This bill clearly reflects the changes in our times – towards the better I might add.
Keep us posted! Keep up the good fight everyone! Like I’ve said before and I’ll keep on saying it again – this isn’t about just you or me or a small group of people. It’s about saving this planet, literally. The US government funded (by our hard-earned tax paying dollars!) war machine known as the War on Drugs (aka War on Families, War on US Citizens, War on Ourselves), is crumbling at the very core and is on the verge of complete break down!
Everyone who continues their support in any way shape or form gives us one more needed push to finally end this utterly failed, pointless, and costly Prohibition once and for all.
i heard a really good argument for regulation and taxation of cannabis in california yesterday. no one seems to talk about the fact that a major source of cannabis horticulture is done indoors. this requires massive amounts of energy which causes greater pollution. if cannabis was legal it would easily be grown outside thereby reducing the carbon foot print. it makes good environmental sense to regulate cannabis.
found a good ap article to share. quotes aaron smith. http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_CALIFORNIA_GONE_TO_POT?SITE=CARED&SECTION=NATIONAL&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
Adle1984:
I agree that decriminalization isn’t enough, but we’re still years away from getting enough support for full legalization. I think polls show most people are for at least some form of decriminalization, and we should take advantage of this with ballot initiatives and lobbying efforts.
As for FDA control, my fear is that the push for medical marijuana will eventually succeed. We’ll get FDA studies showing the efficacy of marijuana as a medicine. We’ll get it rescheduled and it will be sold from pharmacies. Along with that will come FDA control over medical marijuana, and when we finally get marijuana legalized for recreational purposes the FDA will regulate that too. I think the FDA will stand in the way of that happening though and make it more difficult for us to get marijuana legalized for recreational purposes and when it is legalized they’ll put so many rules and regulations making marijuana too expensive and limiting potency so low that we’ll still have a thriving black market. And they will ruin medical marijuana in the mean time. They’ll want medical users to get it from pharmacies that sell overpriced mediocre product. Current medical marijuana dispensaries which are really like “pot bars” or the “coffeeshops” in the Netherlands will give way to pharmacies. Choices and quality will be limited.
I’d rather we put medical marijuana on the back burner and go for decriminalization in the short term with our sights still set on full legalization with the marijuana industry operating similar to and being regulated similar to the alcoholic beverage industry. We could win with decriminalization in several states, at least with respect to simple possession, and we might even be able to get personal use growing decriminalized in a few states. We’ll wear the other side down with this and get more people thinking that we might as well just regulate it and tax it like alcohol.
once cali taxes it nd regulates it, other states will follow, so no point to try for decrim , ppl will be still put in jail no matter wut so its still part of the prohibition.
Nick:
What do you think the chances are that Cali will really do that within the next couple of years? I’m happy to see what is going on in California and am sure it will be good for the movement, but I don’t see it as being very likely that California actually legalizes marijuana within the next couple of years, and the vast majority of the states are nowhere near as close to legalizing as California. I think our chances of getting several states to decriminalize in the near term are much better than are chances for getting even one state to legalize. Not that we shouldn’t still push for legalization, but there is just too much opposition and not enough support for legalization now. I think we’d get more bang for our buck focusing lobbying and voter initiative efforts mostly on things like decriminalization and medical marijuana now. I’d rather we focus more on decriminalization instead of medical marijuana, for the reasons I stated above and because I think that gets us closer to full legalization than medical marijuana.
We still have a lot of people out there clinging to the hope that government will crack the whip more and somehow make marijuana pretty much go away. Those people along with many others are afraid that if we legalize marijuana everyone is going to start smoking it and it’s going to cause us all sorts of problems. I want demoralize those pushing for more government whip cracking. When several states start decriminalizing they’ll see that not only are they not going to get the crackdown they want, but government is going to go easier on pot smokers. Then I bet we’d see a lot of people who oppose legalization come to the conclusion that it is practically legal anyway and not causing so many problems so we might as well fully legalize, get rid of the organized crime feeding black market, create some jobs and generate some tax revenues.
I don’t view decriminalization as the ideal solution. I see it as a way to make things easier on people for a while and more importantly as a means to the final end of full legalization. There are limited funds available for initiatives and lobbying efforts, and I’d like to see us get the best bang for our buck. I don’t think we should just push for decriminalization of simple possession either. We should push for decriminalizing personal use growing in every state where it has a decent chance of passing. The debate on these initiatives will get people educated and get them thinking about the enormous sums of money being made on marijuana and how this money fuels organized crime, leads to corruption and causes all sorts of other problems similar to those experienced during Alcohol Prohibition. This helps us in the debate on full legalization and when we get growing decriminalized in a few states along with simple possession that’s when we get people thinking that it is practically legal anyway so we might as well just regulate it and tax it like alcohol.
Jeremiah Bartholomew, commenter #12: That saynotopot site is creepy. It’s probably a person on probation from Cannabis or a g’ment run site. Don’t waste your time and energy there people, it’s filled with lies and ignorance.
The federal and state government should never have a right to block voter wills. If the mainstream demands a change in any respect, it is the obligation of the government to uphold that will as they serve the American people. Am I wrong!?
“The federal and state government should never have a right to block voter wills. If the mainstream demands a change in any respect, it is the obligation of the government to uphold that will as they serve the American people. Am I wrong!?”
Well, we aren’t a direct democracy. We have elected lawmakers who make our laws. We can vote those who don’t do what we want out of office and replace them with people who will do what we want. Right now though only a tiny few of our lawmakers openly support legalizing marijuana and the viable candidates in elections these days who actually have a chance of winning a seat in Congress or the Senate almost all say they are against legalization when asked, so there rarely is a viable candidate you can vote for who openly supports legalization. We end up having a choice of a Democrat or a Republican who both say they are against legalization and we take the one we think will hurt us the least or we can vote for a third party candidate who won’t capture but a tiny fraction of the vote.
When we get to the point that poll results are consistently showing more than 50% for legalization hopefully we’ll see more lawmakers coming out for legalization. I imagine they’ll still be cautious until we see a good bit over 50% support though because they know most of it comes from young people who tend not to vote, and they know older people who do vote tend to be strongly opposed to legalization and that a high percentage of voter contributions to political campaigns come from older voters. But, those most opposed to legalization are those who grew up before marijuana use took off in this country and they are slowly but surely dying off. Now if we could only get the 18 to 29 demographic to actually go to the polls and vote even in mid term elections so that politicians will fear them like they fear older voters today, maybe we could get something done in the not too distant future.
i think that decriminalization is ok as long as you can have the industrial complex take shade. in california we’re just seen the tip of the titanic size iceberg. paraphernalia manufacturing, commercial farming, the hands hired to tend the cannabis, packaging and distubtion, dispensary staff, home delivery, baked edibles and food options, touism increase… the list goes on forever it seems. once an economy gets used to the profit it counts on it for revenue and it can’t go back. just like when you make more money at work and count on the income to your household budget, but on a national/global scale.
yah, i kinda changed my view on that, i think decrim… will be the way to go. everything TKDietz said makes sense.
The ‘new’ anti-cannabis caucus would like to continue wasting taxpayers’ money, keep twisting the Constitution into knots, and continue killing innocent bystanders and drug users–while at the same time–hypocritically supporting government regulatory schemes that allows for the production, sale and taxation of more dangerous and addictive drugs such as tobacco, alcohol and pharmaceuticals products.
The members of this new anti-cannabis caucus in the Congress are: Dan Burton (R-IL), Jason Chaffetz (R-UT), Darrell Issa (R-CA), Jim Jordan (R-OH), John Mica (R-FL), Aaron Schock (R-IL), Mark Souder (R-IN) and Michael Turner (R-OH).
Lets show them they need our vote by not voting for them when election time comes. If they are against mj then we must be against electing them into office.
all republican hypo-christian douchebags, i see.
Yahoo has just done some coverage on the cause and may be found here: http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/player/popup/?rn=3906861&cl=14597102&ch=4226713&src=news
I say, if you have the capacity and knowledge to grow it in your own home or on your property, you should be able to consume it. Buying it and selling it, on the other hand… when the almighty dollar gets involved is when people get hurt. I think personal cultivation and private consumption of anything ought to be legal. It should be a guaranteed civil liberty!
Decriminalization only sounds good, because it keeps you from being punished. The problem is that it eliminates one fo the greatests points we have to make. Decriminalization will keep the underground market in place. It would be defacto legal to possess, yet there would be no place to purchase and no protection to produce. Legalization, Regulation and Taxation is the only method available that will not only deal with the criminal penalties, but will also deal with the criminal underground that currently profits from this industry.
“Decriminalization will keep the underground market in place. It would be de facto legal to possess, yet there would be no place to purchase and no protection to produce. Legalization, Regulation and Taxation is the only method available that will not only deal with the criminal penalties, but will also deal with the criminal underground that currently profits from this industry.”
That’s true. The problem is that there is not enough support for legalization yet. The feds are a long way from going for full legalization and state it is doubtful that we’ll see state lawmakers pass a bill legalizing it and a governor sign that bill anytime in the near future. I doubt we get it done in any state by ballot initiative either. I think our best shot now is with decriminalization and we should push to decriminalize growing too. If people are able to grow a few plants without fear of arrest and without fear of having their property seized, a lot more will grow it. They’ll use it themselves, share a little, and yes some would be sold, but all of this means less money for organized crime. It would not hurt organized crime as much as full legalization, but the less money these guys are making the less trouble they can cause.
Marijuana is going to be legalized. It is only a matter of time now. Before it will happen though we’re going to have to get a strong majority supporting it and we’re going to have to get lawmakers in office willing to do it. We’re not there yet. In the mean time we need to keep up the pressure, keep getting state laws changed, keep winning in our efforts so that people see that legalization is inevitable. The more we convince that it is coming no matter what the more the debate shifts from whether we should legalize to how we should regulate it. I think decriminalization, especially if we can get growing decriminalized in a few states would cause more people to think that it’s practically legal anyway so we might as well go the rest of the way. It wears the other side down. Not only are we not going to crack down on marijuana like they want, but we’re going to go easier on users and those who want to grow their own.
We’re pushing for full legalization and will continue to do that. But if that’s all we pushed for we wouldn’t be winning at all. We’re seeing a lot of wins these days. More states are getting medical marijuana. Massachusetts just decriminalized simple possession. These wins wear the other side down. It shows them they can’t beat us, might as well join us. If all we did was lobby for legalization and had ballot initiatives for full legalization we’d be losing left and right and we wouldn’t have the momentum we have today. We haven’t gotten lawmakers in any state to so much as have an actual vote on legalization and ballot initiatives on legalization have failed. Our victories have been with medical marijuana and decriminalization.
Again, I’m not saying we should push for decriminalization instead of legalization. I’m saying we should do both. What I’m suggesting is that we shift focus from medical marijuana now to decriminalization, both of simple possession and personal use growing.
Note that medical marijuana is not perfect either. Most medical marijuana states do not have dispensaries and even in those that do only a small percentage of those who consume marijuana are medical users. The black market still flourishes. We’re also not stopping with medical marijuana. It’s what we push for until we can get full legalization.
I’d rather we push for decriminalizing possession and personal use growing until we can get full legalization, instead of medical marijuana. Medical marijuana was the easiest thing to sell before, but now I think people are ready in many states for decriminalization both of simple possession and personal use growing. I think there is a good chance we could get these laws passed in several states and that it will be more effective in convincing the masses that we should just go ahead and regulate the marijuana industry like the alcohol industry than medical marijuana.
And I think medical marijuana is going to cause us problems. It’s one of those “be careful what you wish for because you just might get it” situations. If we keep pushing we’ll likely get it rescheduled and make it such that it is controlled by the FDA and only sold through pharmacies by actual prescription only. There will only be a couple of producers. People will not have the choices they have today. Quality would suffer. Prices would be high, and the FDA will make it harder for us to get full legalization and when we do get it they’ll over-regulate the marijuana industry and set it up for failure.
Do you think we’d have pot dispensaries in California and other states if pot was sold a pharmacies? Do we have legal Xanax dispensaries? Hell no. Those places will be shut down. They won’t enjoy nearly the support they enjoy today once medical users with actual prescriptions can buy it at a pharmacy, and of course it will be a lot harder to get an actual prescription than it is to get a simple recommendation. The DEA will be watching doctors who write these prescriptions like they watch pain management clinic doctors who write lots of scripts for narcotic pain meds.
There are certainly some people who benefit from medical marijuana, people who need it. But, medical marijuana in California has really become de facto legalization. Anyone who wants a recommendation for medical marijuana can get it. The dispensaries are more like coffeeshops in the Netherlands than health care facilities. This is no secret to anyone. It hurts us some in that the other side says medical marijuana is a scam and we “legalizers” are scammers, but it also helps us. We can point to these dispensaries as proof that marijuana can be taxed, that most people wouldn’t just grow their own if they could. People who could easily just grow their own without fear of arrest are paying $10 or $20 a gram and sometimes more at these shops. They pay these high prices plus sales taxes. This shows that marijuana can be taxed and that most people will not just grow their own, and when you look at use statistics for California compared to other states and their own historical numbers these numbers show that even when pot is de facto legal use does not go up and it is not higher than states without de facto legalization.
If the main purpose of medical marijuana was to help us get marijuana legalized, then it has served its purpose. I know we also believe that people who are sick and could be helped by marijuana should be able to use it. They could do that with decriminalization too, and grow their own if we get that decriminalized as well. And then we wouldn’t have to come off as a bunch of scammers using sick people to get de facto legalization.
We could be crystal clear about our intent. We’re pushing for decriminalization because the people aren’t yet ready for legalization, and we could state our case for both. There is enough fear out there now about Mexican cartels, pot growing in our national forests, etc., to get significant support for decriminalizing personal use growing, and we can plant a lot of seeds in the process, get people thinking about how legalization would decimate these drug trafficking organizations. We now have the ONDCP estimating that cartels make in excess of 60% of their income from marijuana sales even though they bring in and distribute most all the cocaine, meth and heroin consumed in this country, and there have been even higher estimates of the percentage they make from marijuana from other government authorities. This kind of thing will help us sell decriminalization of personal use growing and make the case for full legalization. We’ll get it decriminalized in a few states. Support will grow for full legalization as people realize that we’re never going to crack down on marijuana and start thinking that it is already practically legal anyway so we might as well just go the rest of the way and have a regulated industry with sales taxes and excises, the works.
Is there any realistic hope that the Initiative 59 will just be implemented, or will the District require a new Initiative to be placed on the ballot and the voted in to make this happen?
It really scares me that we’re turning towards more and more government regulation. The government doesn’t “make” the law, the PEOPLE do! If we want something, then the government BETTER follow through. They should be on their knees for the people. It’s a huge slap in the face when they disrespect the people by ignoring us. And to claim that marijuana growers/users are terrorists is the MOST ABSURD thing I have ever heard in my life. Thousands of people each year are negatively affected by “the war on drugs”, yet marijuana itself doesn’t contribute to ANY deaths (and may help contribute to peace). Who is the “terrorist” again?
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