cannabisnews.com: House Subcommittee OKs Pot on D.C. Ballot
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House Subcommittee OKs Pot on D.C. Ballot
Posted by CN Staff on June 29, 2009 at 07:10:48 PT
By Michael Neibauer, Examiner Staff Writer
Source: Washington Examiner
Washington, D.C. -- House appropriations subcommittee has lifted a long-standing budget rider banning the District government from spending any money to decriminalize marijuana.The Financial Services panel, which has oversight of D.C., has removed from the 2010 budget 11-year-old language outlawing the District’s use of federal or local funds to legalize marijuana or reduce penalties for its possession or distribution.
“This is definitely something we’ve been working with Congress on for a few years now and communicated with the committee about,” said Bruce Mirken, spokesman for the Marijuana Policy Project. “It’s taken a while to get it done, but it looks like maybe this will be the year that it happens.”The financial services budget, marked up Thursday, “takes further steps towards reducing undue congressional interference in local affairs,” Rep. Jose Serrano, the subcommittee chairman, said in a statement.Serrano, D-N.Y., said the budget bill “allows the District to conduct and implement a referendum on use of marijuana for medical purposes as has been done in various states.”The District voted on medical marijuana once before, in 1998, but the votes were declared invalid. Former Rep. Bob Barr raced to have his anti-legalization language added to the budget two weeks before the initiative vote was held. When the ballots were unofficially tallied nearly a year after they were cast, it was learned that 69 percent of voters backed legalization.If added to the ballot now, it will pass again, said Chuck Thies, a political strategist who worked on the 1998 pro-initiative campaign.“I look forward to it being on the ballot next year,” he said. “I expect there would be a well-funded, well-organized citywide effort for 2010.”The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administrative is firmly against the legalization of medical marijuana, arguing proponents “are spending huge amounts of money to encourage a greater tolerance for drug use.” Smoked marijuana “has not withstood the rigors of science — it is not medicine and it is not safe,” the DEA argues.The financial services budget bill also eliminates a longtime ban on the use of local funds for abortion, and it discontinues the ban on the use of funds for domestic partnership registration.Source: Washington Examiner (DC)Author: Michael Neibauer, Examiner Staff WriterPublished: June 28, 2009Copyright: 2009 Washington ExaminerContact: threads dcexaminer.comWebsite: http://www.dcexaminer.com/URL: http://drugsense.org/url/mzvTc94QCannabisNews Medical Marijuana Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/medical.shtml
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Comment #13 posted by yoshi on June 30, 2009 at 02:38:25 PT:
Marion Barry
I wonder how Barry will come down on this one. He was really anti gay marriage, but I'm sure he still smokes cannabis.
I went to high school in DC and Barry spoke at my graduation, we all chanted "up with hope and down with dope" He was busted a few months later for smoking crack, he was set up by a bitch. Our keynote speaker that year was Jim Vance, local TV anchorman and DC legend who told students how he recently had a shotgun in his mouth over cocaine addiction.
Weed was easily purchased at Meridian Hill park in the late 80's, seedy and overpriced but buying was a rush. Is this guy a cop? Will I get arrested? My parents will be pissed
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Comment #12 posted by observer on June 29, 2009 at 18:03:24 PT
Bob Barr: D.C. Can Use MMJ Endorsement, Now
Former Rep. Bob Barr raced to have his anti-legalization language added to the budget two weeks before the initiative vote was held.Yeah, I think we can count Barr a friend to drug reform, now. And now is the time for former Rep. Bob Barr to come to the aid of the D.C. medical marijuana ballot question. It would go a long way to help out after all that's happened there re: MMJ over the years.
new video: intro to the drugsense news bot
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Comment #11 posted by George Servantes on June 29, 2009 at 17:32:52 PT
Forbidden medicine
I just can't imagine how can you be so uncompassionate and forbid someones medicine? Is money and power more important then easing someones sufferings? I and many others suffer everyday and night from pain, but powers that be are forbidding natural medicine - cannabis indica.Forgive them Father for they don't know what they are doing.
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Comment #10 posted by Hope on June 29, 2009 at 12:53:58 PT
Barr and forgiveness...
I consciously, through effort, choose to forgive the man... but he has yet to earn my trust.I can't forgive him for what he's done to other people and his offense in those matters except for my feelings about it. That's for those people to forgive, not me.It is noted and appreciated that he has made efforts to correct his grave error in judgement.It also must be remembered that though he was apparently the one that wrote and pushed the bill that disallowed a politically sacred, to me, vote of the citizens of Washington D.C., he wasn't the only one that pushed it and made it happen. Lots of them voted that vote to make the votes of the citizens worthless. Lots of them.
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Comment #9 posted by Sam Adams on June 29, 2009 at 12:49:37 PT
Barr belongs in China
They wouldn't even count the vote for a year? that's more typical of China than here.I don't give a hoot what he says now. These guys treat their personal DC neighbors like slaves on a plantation. I guarantee you this is happening because Obama is black. This is a race issue. Most of DC is black, there were many obvious political abuses of DC, for many years they wouldn't even let them have represenation in Congress, it's pathetic and so racist.this is a great opportunity, the District is very liberal, I would pass a referendum that allows for-profit dispensaries and watch the fun begin as DC turns into LA
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Comment #8 posted by FoM on June 29, 2009 at 12:29:11 PT
A Comment About Barr
I can be tolerant of him but I will never feel any positive vibrations when his name is mentioned. I think of how many sick people have been deprived of medical marijuana because of what he did.
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Comment #7 posted by Hope on June 29, 2009 at 12:25:52 PT
1998?
Ten years ago? That doesn't seem possible. I saw it then and still do, as one of the most undemocratic... treasonous stunts I'd ever known congress to do.It's still as disgusting as it ever was.
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Comment #6 posted by FoM on June 29, 2009 at 11:32:27 PT
E_Johnson
That's is a good thing.
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Comment #5 posted by E_Johnson on June 29, 2009 at 11:29:15 PT
FoM -- he's repented of his sin
That's a good thing we can say about Barr.
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Comment #4 posted by christ on June 29, 2009 at 07:39:52 PT
Barr
The Barr amendment was as bad as Denver, Missoula, or San Diego County fighting democracy. But during the '08 campaign he was pretty vocal about what a bad piece of legislation it was, and how Congress needed to stop "renewing" it.
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Comment #3 posted by christ on June 29, 2009 at 07:34:48 PT
POLL - HR 2943
I don't recall the specific wording of the Barr Ammendment, or the '98 DC initiative, but didn't the initiative approve mmj, and the Barr ammendment prevented it? Is it just me, or does it seem like this article's author is mixing up a lot of language with inferences that the initiative was both blanket decrim, and legalization? It's good news nevertheless.Also related to the US House, there is a decrim poll that is up by 4 votes...
http://www.campaignforliberty.com/blog.php?view=20477You have to register (free), but you can see if your Rep co-sponsored or not. And you know what to do after that.
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Comment #2 posted by runruff on June 29, 2009 at 07:34:28 PT
Thank god for Nixon's Army!
"it is not medicine and it is not safe,” the DEA argues."The DEA are strictly concerned about the safely of the people and not the diminishing budgets that go with prohibition or their eventual demise. The DEA are so adamant about saving people from cannabis they are willing to kill and incarcerate them and confiscate their homes, money and forever destroy the family unit, rather than let them suffer the ravages of the evil weed!The DEA is looking out for you!
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Comment #1 posted by FoM on June 29, 2009 at 07:31:17 PT
Good News
I really have nothing to say about Barr that is good so I'll just stay quiet.
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