House GOP mounts high horse on DC pot law

The 650,000 people who live in the nation’s capital will — most likely— by mid-July be able to possess up to an ounce of marijuana without fear of anything more than a $25 fine, but not before Congress gets a chance at scrutinizing how Washington D.C.’s 27 (yes, that’s right, twenty-seven) law enforcement agencies will handle the new decriminalization law.

The House Subcommittee on Oversight and Government Reform held the third in a series of hearings Friday related to how lenient local marijuana laws sync with harsher federal ones.

The District of Columbia’s City Council voted 10 to 1 in March to decriminalize marijuana, seeking to alleviate a massive racial disparity in pot arrests and focus law enforcement on worse stuff like a mountain of unsolved murders.

But 20 percent of Washington D.C. is federal land, including most of its glorious green spaces, like Rock Creek Park ... aka where Washingtonians are probably getting high right now — without you.

Enter the U.S. Congress, which has final say over D.C. laws, as per 1973 Home Rule legislation that lets Washingtonians do regular American things … like vote for president.

Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, D-D.C., who serves on the committee but doesn’t actually have a vote in Congress, bristled at the call for the hearing, saying plenty of other states had decriminalized marijuana without this kind of federal meddling.

“The subcommittee has singled out D.C. on the decriminalization law as it has not singled out any of the 18 other jurisdictions that have similar laws,” Norton said.

Committee Chairman John Mica, R-Fla., who brought a “faux joint” (rolled by his staff — “They’re more experienced,” Mica said), gave assurances that the point of the hearing wasn’t to override D.C.’s laws.

“No one’s here to negate the District law. We’re looking at the implications and the enforcement regime with 26 federal agencies responsible for enforcing different penalties,” he said.

Acting Chief of United States Park Police Robert Maclean testified his agency would retain the right to arrest those smoking or carrying marijuana. But, according to testimony from the ACLU’s SeemaSadanandan, 93 percent of pot busts are done by Metropolitan Police Department cops — not federal officers.

Rep. John Fleming, R-La., a doctor, voiced concerns at lax local pot laws, saying they had already led to grotesqueries like 4th graders in Colorado selling pot. He hopes the reefer madness will end soon.

“The public has never accepted marijuana as a part of culture. I know that seems to be changing but I think we can change that in time to prevent it from inculcating into our culture,” Fleming said, when asked by another Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tenn., if alcohol also deserves a ban.

In response, Fleming said Prohibition "just wasn't culturally accepted."

Between now and the dog days of D.C.’s summer, Fleming might become the bane of the District’s decriminalization effort, pledging to introduce a resolution in Congress to block the city’s bill, according to Roll Call. A spokesman for Fleming’s nominal leader, Speaker JohnBoehner, R-Ohio, told the publication he hadn’t yet made up his mind.

A congressional review period ends in mid-July. After that, D.C.’s bill becomes law. But representatives can hamstring the District’s self-determination with provisions attached to the city’s budget, which Congress controls.

“Although Members of Congress sometimes try to overturn D.C. laws, they usually do it surreptitiously, instead of using the cumbersome disapproval process during the congressional review period,” D.C.Rep. Norton’s office said in a release.

Norton told Al Jazeera that blocking the will of Washingtonians won’t be a walk in the park.

“I think [Fleming is] slowly coming to realize it’s not as easy as he thinks. He’s begun to backpedal that pledge, saying he’s only considering it, and we’re going to make it even harder for him,” Norton said.

She added that her office is almost always able to battle back against congressional attempts to undo District laws.

“We have a fairly good track record …. I am confident we have a quite decent chance of stopping Rep. Fleming’s attempt to block our law.”

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Any views expressed on The Scrutineer are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera America's editorial policy.