In Advance of Statehood Summit Meeting, Norton to Take to House Floor Today for Special Order Hour to Defend D.C.’s New Marijuana Law and Call for Action by Residents for Statehood
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) will get up to an hour on the House floor today, November 14th, around 2:00 p.m., to defend the District of Columbia's democratically passed marijuana legalization initiative, Initiative 71, and to speak about the progress of District of Columbia statehood and how to keep the progress going as we move into the 114th Congress. She asked for the time in light of the threats to overturn Initiative 71 and in advance of the D.C. statehood summit meeting with statehood activists on Saturday, November 15, at 10:00 a.m., where she will give opening remarks – the first gathering of its kind since September's historic D.C. statehood hearing in the Senate. Her special order can be live-streamed here.
"Unlike the four states that recently legalized marijuana, we are preparing for the possibility of multiple attacks on marijuana legalization in the District, first in this session and then in the upcoming 114th Congress," Norton said. "If D.C. were a state like Oregon, which legalized cannabis in November as D.C. did, there would be no such meddling. Yesterday's bipartisan press conference showed that we have allies in the Congress. In addition, yesterday evening, I spoke briefly on the floor about the racial justice effects of interference because 9 out of 10 arrested for marijuana possession are African Americans, although Blacks and Whites use marijuana at the same rates. Today, I will also show the relationship of this interference to the city's quest for statehood."
One Member of the House of Representatives, Rep. Andy Harris (R-MD), has said he will try to overturn D.C.'s marijuana legalization initiative, but Norton said that current polls show that Harris, whose state has decriminalized marijuana, is not where the American people are. The District may also have support in the Senate because 23 states have approved medical marijuana, 18 states have decriminalized marijuana, and 4 states have legalized marijuana. Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) recently said that D.C. alone should decide whether to legalize marijuana without interference from Congress.
The Statement of Administration Policy on the House's fiscal year 2015 D.C. Appropriations bill said the administration "strongly opposes" the bill's prohibition on the District spending its own local funds to implement its local marijuana policies because it violates the "principle of States' rights and of District home rule."
On November 4, Alaska, the District of Columbia, and Oregon all passed ballot initiatives legalizing the adult, recreational use of marijuana. A February 2014 Pew Research Center poll found that 54% of Americans support marijuana legalization.