City Council members in Washington, D.C. got a sample of the kindness of strangers on Tuesday when they were greeted with joints and cannabis seeds on the steps of the Wilson Building as they filed into work. But these strangers were local cannabis activists, and their generosity an act of protest. Assembled under banners bedecked with cannabis leaves, the folks taking IDs and handing out joints presented an unusual scene, but one that highlighted the problem with D.C.’s cannabis laws. And that was exactly the idea. If cannabis activists give joints to Washington lawmakers, maybe they’ll do something about the District’s problematic weed rules.
Exploiting Legal Loopholes
Municipal politics in Washington, D.C. are always a bit more complicated than in the fifty states. And that’s thanks to a rule in the Constitution that gives Congress the right to attach riders to bills passed by City Council.
In this way, federal lawmakers have a direct hand in shaping the laws for residents of the District whose interests they don’t necessarily represent.
And when you have a District that wants legal weed and a Justice Department run by a vehemently anti-cannabis Attorney General who’s vowed to renew the War on Drugs and uphold federal prohibition, contradictions are bound to arise.
Hence, the situation the District is currently facing. Individuals can legally possess up to two ounces of cannabis. But what they can’t do, is sell it.
Predictably, inevitably, the pop-up shops sprung up, well, like weeds. Buy a cheap item for $50 and get a few grams of cannabis as a “gift” to go with it.
Then, the ensuing cat and mouse game with police round-ups, raids, confiscations and arrests. In other words, everything District