Is the D.C. Ban on Public Pot Use Still Enforceable?

Initiative 71 seems to override a law against "consumption of marijuana in public space."

NBC Washington

Yesterday D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser assured anyone worried by marijuana legalization in her city that it will not turn the nation's capital into Amsterdam on the Potomac. She emphasized that Initiative 71, which takes effect after midnight tonight, will not make it legal to consume cannabis in public. D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier likewise said the initiative allows "home use," not public use. And in a Q&A on "Everything You Need to Know to Stay Out of Jail When Pot Is Legal in D.C.," Washington Post reporter Perry Stein warned that "you cannot smoke in public, anywhere." I'm not so sure.

The D.C. Council did pass a ban on public cannabis consumption as part of last year's Marijuana Possession Decriminalization Amendment Act. That law prohibits "consumption of marijuana in public space," which includes "any place to which the public is invited" (such as a bar or restaurant) as well as sidewalks, streets, parking lots, and vehicles located in public. Even after possessing up to an ounce of marijuana became a citable offense punishable by a $25 civil fine, consuming marijuana in public remained a misdemeanor punishable by a fine of up to $500 and up to 60 days in jail.

But Initiative 71, which amends D.C.'s Controlled Substances Act, says "use" of marijuana by adults 21 or older "shall be lawful, and shall not be an offense under District of Columbia law." It says that is so "notwithstanding any provision of this chapter to the contrary." The "chapter" to which it refers is Title 48, Subtitle III, Chapter 9, which is the same chapter where the pre-existing ban on public consumption is located. Since Initiative 71 does not itself impose any restrictions on the locations where cannabis may be consumed, it seems to override the earlier provision.

Maybe I am missing something. Today I asked D.C. General Counsel David Zvenyach, the office of D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine, and the D.C. Cannabis Cannabis Campaign, which backed Initiative 71, how the ban on public consumption can still be enforceable in light of the ballot measure's language. So far I have not received a satisfying answer, but I will let you know if and when I do.

Comments

[EDG reppin' LBC]

You know what else was Banned in D.C. ?

[AlmightyJB]

So they have a history of banning thingw that should be manditory.

[Furburguesa]

Common Sense?

[Robert]

Hitler?

[Juice]

Politicians never like to follow the law when the law tells them to leave people alone.

[Hugh Akston]

How about a compromise: The ban on public consumption will be selectively enforced.

[Rich]

Or: The legality of public consumption will be selectively ignored.

[Hugh Akston]

Look call it whatever you want. As long as the various police agencies in DC can continue to whale on poor people and black people while giving a pass to hipsters and well-connected assholes.

[R C Dean]

You're right, Jacob. That's why they haven't gotten back to you. They were wrong, either intentionally or through gross negligence, and they don't to admit it.

[Rich]

Don't matter none, R C.

"Reasonable mistake of law."

[Konghca]

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[TheZeitgeist]

Is the D.C. Ban on Public Pot Use Still Enforceable?

Might makes right. No Federal gun control = FYTW.

[AlmightyJB]

It would seem like they would know when to cut their losses and be glad there aren't more of their edicts we choose to ignore. At what poInt does everyone tell them to all go fuck themselves.

[R C Dean]

At what point does everyone tell them to all go fuck themselves.

When you have more friends with guns and bad attitudes than they do.

[AlmightyJB]

The bane of governments is greed. At some point that always happens.

[kV]

Oh, that's so cute. Jacob still believes that the law actually means what it says.

[Episiarch]

There are a surprising number of people who still believe that even after watching the government and government agents do whatever the fuck they want time and time again, no matter what the "law" says.

[Mickey Rat]

Does that mean that 71 arguably allows pot use where tobacco use is prohibited? I am wondering if the the officials have absorbed the implications and are horrified by it.

[Robert]

Interesting that the law against smoking in public & business places in NY specifies tobacco. If you're on stage & want to depict smoking, you're allowed to do it with non-tobacco smokes. The substitute smokes are said to be harsher on the throat, and I would assume they're at least as bad as tobacco smoking for health.

However, the outlawing of vaping in NYC doesn't specify nicotine. Not sure how you'd simulate vaping on stage, then. I guess you just pantomime it without breathing any vapor.

[S. Quincy]

A theatrical loophole for bar owners.

[gaoxiaen]

Funnier.

http://www.npr.org/templates/s.....d=17495035

[Bo Cara Esq.]

GOP Rep. Glenn Grothman

"A lot has been written about the income gap in our country and how the poor people aren't making enough money or saving enough money, so I want to ask your caller: Assuming one of the goals we have in this country is to help people make more money and be part of the American Dream, if we legalize marijuana across the board, what effect do you think that's going to have on people? Is that going to cause the underclass, or whatever, to improve more or is it going to create even a larger segment of Americans who is not achieving their full possibility and falling behind?"

Grothman added: "I think if you want to make sure that all Americans are participating in the American Dream, all Americans are having a good job where someday they are going to be able to afford to take care of kids, buy a house, I don't think legalizing marijuana is a way to work towards that goal."

http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content.....2pxsX.dpuf

[Agammamon]

Arbeit Mach Frei!

[FUQ]

Linking rightwingwatch is hilarious. Of course that's Bo's self appointed job here at Reason

[Roger Knights]

GOP Rep. Glenn Grothman:
"if we legalize marijuana across the board, what effect do you think that's going to have on people? Is that going to cause the underclass, or whatever, to improve more or is it going to create even a larger segment of Americans who is not achieving their full possibility and falling behind?"

It will be a positive, if marijuana substitutes to some extent for alcohol, as is likely. It may also substitute somewhat for cocaine and heroin to some degree. Those two drugs are less bulky and less smelly, which makes them easier to get to the black market.

[SIV]

Debbie Wasserman Schultz, DNC Chair, on legalizing the non-intoxicating cannabis preparation that has shown promise in suppressing seizures in children with severe epilepsy who have not responded to other anti-convulsant medications:

" I do not believe we should make it easier for those seeking to abuse the drug to have easy access to it."

With each drug-related vote, her office has explained that she's not strictly against medical marijuana but instead opposes tying the hands of law enforcement or encroaching on federal powers.

The continued survival of those brats encroach on the sacred federal powers.

[thom]

It's not so much what the law says so much as what the politicians who passed those laws intended them to say.

[userve32]

Dude i know how that goes man, makes no sense.

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[sariya.amber]

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[AlmightyJB]

I was soooo wasted in 1982.

[EDG reppin' LBC]

You can never go back. But at least some old guys are still making good music today.

Stephen Malkmus and The Jicks

Lee Ranaldo and The Dust

[Episiarch]

I thought for a minute you were going to post a link to Eddie Money's "I Wanna Go Back". Crisis averted.

(slides knife back into sheath quietly)

[EDG reppin' LBC]

Yeah. I was lucky enough to roadie for my friend's band who opened for Sonic Youth here in LA a couple times. SY weren't hard party animals, so backstage they would just sit around and have a beer or two and actually just talk to whoever was backstage. Talked about music, food, basketball, just stuff.

[Episiarch]

Hey man, I was just making sure. You can't be too careful these days.

(unobtrusively unscrews silencer from pistol)

[Smilin' Joe Fission]

That Stephen Malkmus song is a great tune! And the French girl translating the lyrics in the video makes it even better. Thanks for the link.