Jacob Sullum on the Failure to Stop Legal Pot in Washington, D.C.
Harold Rogers, the Kentucky Republican who chairs the House Appropriations Committee, says a rider in the omnibus spending bill that Congress enacted last month stops the District of Columbia from legalizing marijuana. Eleanor Holmes Norton, the District's congressional delegate, disagrees. So do D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson, and D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine.
Jacob Sullum says it looks like Rogers will lose this argument, and marijuana will soon be legal in the nation's capital. Sullum argues that Rogers' disadvantage reflects the shifting politics of marijuana legalization, which have left pot prohibitionists in a weaker position than ever before.