“Marijuana dispensaries and activists in Washington, D.C., are waiting to see how the Obama administration will react when the capital’s first medical marijuana clinics open this spring.
While the D.C. government has approved medical marijuana, it is still illegal under federal law. District-based distributors are hoping to avoid clashes with federal authorities even as some prepare to open shop blocks from the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and Department of Justice.”
Three-quarters of registered voters in D.C. support decriminalizing marijuana possession and making it punishable by just a $100 citation, according to a survey of 1,621 voters conducted by Public Policy Polling.
All the leading candidates in the at-large D.C. Council race support decriminalizing marijuana, but one man has put pot above all else.
“I hate to quote Richard Nixon, but there is a silent majority that supports this,” said Paul Zukerberg, who is on the ballot for Tuesday’s special election. “We’re arresting thousands and thousands of young people every year for marijuana. It’s a bad policy and it’s terrible.”
“Ahead of Vox‘s favorite day to enjoy nature, D.C. gives us another reason to be glad Georgetown is located in such a liberal city.
A new poll released today by the Drug Policy Alliance and the Marijuana Policy Project found that 63 percent of residents supported enacting Colorado-esque legalization schemes here in the District. A further 78 percent of residents said that they would like to expand D.C.’s medical marijuana law so that doctors could prescribe cannabis to patients for any condition whatsoever. (The current law has quite restrictive limits on what conditions doctors may prescribe marijuana for.)
67 percent would like to see fewer police resources devoted to catching people who smoke weed. More than 4,000 people were arrested for marijuana possession in D.C. last year.”
National and local advocates for marijuana policy reform are using a new poll to kick off a major push for the legalization or decriminalization of cannabis in the District — one that could include the pursuit of a ballot initiative in 2014.
The poll was sponsored by the Marijuana Policy Project, the Drug Policy Alliance and financed by Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soaps, a company that had backed legalization referendums in four states. Public Policy Polling conducted the automated telephone poll on April 10 and 11, reaching 1,621 registered voters.
It showed two-thirds of D.C. registered voters would at least partially support a legalization referendum similar to the ones passed last year in Colorado and Washington state. Three-quarters of poll respondents favored the decriminalization approach adopted by several states and municipalities, which would turn the possession of small amounts of marijuana from a criminal offense to something more akin to a traffic ticket.
Also see DCist & The Huffington Post