WASHINGTON (AP) — A Republican congressman said Friday
that he hadn’t decided whether Congress should try to overturn a law
decriminalizing possession of small amounts of marijuana in the District
of Columbia, insisting that he’s only seeking to understand how
conflicts between the new local law and federal law will be resolved.
Rep.
John Mica of Florida said at a hearing of a House Oversight
subcommittee he chairs that he was not singling out the District’s
marijuana policy for scrutiny, and he offered no opinion on its merits.
After the hearing, he described his own thoughts on marijuana
decriminalization as "evolving."
"No decision has been made yet
whether Congress will contest or attempt to overturn the District law
that has been passed," Mica said.
Mayor Vincent Gray signed a bill
in March that makes possession of less than one ounce of pot a civil
offense subject to a $25 fine. The law would take if Congress takes no
action after 60 legislative days. It would not apply to federal law
enforcement agents such as U.S. Park Police or on federal property,
which makes up nearly a quarter of the land in the city.
Congress
rarely seeks to invalidate laws passed by the local government, but it
has used the appropriations process to block policies opposed by social
conservatives. District voters approved medical marijuana in a 1998
referendum, but for 11 years thereafter, Congress prevented the city
from making it available. Congress also routinely bars the District from
spending tax dollars on abortion.
Seventeen states have some form
of marijuana decriminalization. Friday’s hearing was the third that
Mica’s subcommittee has held on the conflict between local and federal
drug laws and the Obama administration’s enforcement priorities.
"We’re not picking on the District. We’re looking at the implications for federal prosecution,"
Mica said.
But
Eleanor Holmes Norton, a Democrat who represents the District in
Congress, said its local leaders were being unfairly singled out.
"Red
and blue states alike have decriminalized marijuana, from California to
New York, from Mississippi to Nebraska. Nothing is similar about these
states except they have taken this particular step," Norton said. "And
yet the District of Columbia is the only jurisdiction that has gotten a
full-fledged hearing on its local decriminalization law."
Mica
held up what he called a "faux joint" and noted that a person could roll
more than 20 joints with an ounce of pot. He asked what would happen if
someone were arrested on a street bordering the National Mall, which is
federal property.
The acting U.S. Park Police chief said his
officers could still arrest someone under those circumstances, while
D.C. police said they would not.
David O’Neil, acting assistant
attorney general for the criminal division of the Justice Department,
said the department would treat the District the same way it treats the
states that have decriminalized marijuana, by focusing on enforcement
priorities that include large-scale drug trafficking and distribution of
the drug to minors or on federal property.
The District law was
approved largely to combat racial disparities in arrests. The American
Civil Liberties Union found that blacks were eight times more likely to
be arrested for marijuana possession than whites in the city in 2010.
About half of the city’s 646,000 residents are African-American.
Mica
said he was troubled by the disparities, but he added, "I’m not certain
that changing the penalty in the District of Columbia is going to
benefit that population that much."
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