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Why Washington DC Is the Most Important Place to Legalize Weed Yet

DC’s complex politics means legalization puts pressure on federal politicians to take a stance on the issue, once and for all.
Image: DCMJ.org

Yesterday, Oregon and Alaska voted to legalize marijuana, much like Washington and Colorado did two years ago. That's all fine and good, but not quite a game changer. The real needle mover, on a national level,  comes from Washington, DC, where the path to commercial weed sales just instantly changed the national conversation.

In the short term, the new law will allow adults to have up to two ounces of marijuana and will let them grow six marijuana plants for personal consumption. They'll also be allowed to give—but not sell—marijuana to their friends. But the city council plans to soon pass a separate law that allows the city to tax marijuana sales from dispensaries.

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That voters decided to legalize pot in one of the country's most liberal cities is no surprise. But because of the way both federal and district laws work—in addition to the symbolism of having weed be legal in the nation's capital—many federal lawmakers will now be compelled to take a stance on marijuana legalization.

there will be no need for ballot initiatives in California and Massachusetts in 2016. the governments there will do it for us before then

Congress has the power to override any local laws (including one put into place by a referendum), so DC weed regulation immediately becomes a politically tricky issue for many Capitol Hill lawmakers. Earlier this year, the city decriminalized marijuana, and  House Republicans blocked funding for that particular law. They were hammered in the press, and eventually relented.

Taking a stance on a voter-decided law immediately puts some small government (but pro-prohibition) conservatives in a tough spot: Striking down a DC law reeks of federal government overreach, but ignoring it means taking what voters may perceive to be a lax stance on marijuana.

But, if you're pro legalization, that's not the best part: DC law forbids referendum votes from passing laws that will impose new taxes, so yesterday's vote only makes growing your own plants legal. DC's city council, however, has all but promised to pass a companion law that makes it legal to tax, regulate, and sell weed in the city (the city estimates it'll be able to start selling weed, or letting others sell weed at dispensaries sometime in 2016).

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When that happens—the proposed bill already has overwhelming support in the council—DC will become the first "state" (for lack of a better term, that's how it operates legislatively) to have its lawmakers legalize the sale of marijuana. That's a major development.

this is about racial justice

Yes, DC votes overwhelmingly liberal, but when sitting lawmakers can make the drug legal without there being significant public backlash, that immediately shows lawmakers in other states that they might be able to do the same.

"I think there will be no need for ballot initiatives in California and Massachusetts in 2016—the governments there will do it for us before then," Adam Eidinger, the founder of Capitol Hemp who has led the DC legalization initiative told me. "This will be a huge lightbulb that'll go off at the Democratic National Council and the Republican National Council—it'll be glaringly obvious that they need to modify their positions."

Eidinger is plenty bullish about the legalization effort nationwide, but he has a point. Legalizing weed in DC is symbolic, and it also opens up a Pandora's Box for the rest of the country.

"Are Republicans going to want to be associated with [prohibitionists]?" Eidinger said. "I think you'll see Republican candidates who support this issue appeal to lefties who place this issue above others. No one is getting locked up for abortion or climate change."

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Supporters celebrated in DC after the poll results came in. Image: DCMJ

For a little bit of extra inside baseball, President Obama (as powerless as he seems, given yesterday's results) now has the chance to come out and all but end the debate, making it easy for potential presidential candidate Hillary Clinton to  endorse legalization without it being politically costly.

While there are certainly undertones of over policing and unequal enforcement of laws driving the Oregon and Alaska ballot measures, DC's movement has been overwhelmingly framed as a civil rights movement in a way that it hasn't been in those states.

"It really was important to have this message of this is about racial justice," he said. "We're going to legalize it in a racial justice context, and stop people from being arrested for nonviolent crimes."

DC is a racially segregated and economically unequal city:  Black people are eight times more likely than white people to be arrested for smoking weed, even though there's little evidence that white people are less likely to smoke. The strongest support for the bill came from predominantly black areas (though it also had support among whites as well).

When framed like that, DC's weed legalization movement takes on a whole different look and feel—and it's one that legislators in states with similar racial and economic disparities in arrest rates can look to as a model.