Norton Statement on D.C. Marijuana Decriminalization Bill Signed into Law Today

WASHINGTON, DC – Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) made the following statement on the District of Columbia marijuana decriminalization bill signed into law today.

“The District’s decriminalization law will have a beneficial effect,” said Norton. “It strongly reinforces our priority work in the Congress – both in my D.C. Commission on Black Men and Boys and the Congressional Caucus on Black Men and Boys, which Representative Danny Davis and I founded last year. The law does not intend to encourage marijuana smoking, but to discourage the needless and disproportionate effect marijuana laws have on African American men and boys – criminal records that often affect them for the rest of their lives. While I do not expect Congress to interfere with D.C.’s right to pass a local law on marijuana decriminalization, just as seventeen states have already done, I will resolutely defend this right from any attempted congressional meddling.”

Published: March 31, 2014