District of Columbia voters will have the chance to vote, perhaps as early as November, on the legalization of marijuana for medicinal purposes following a March 28 ruling by U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan.
Sullivan overturned a federal law known as the Barr Amendment that forbade the District from placing the question on the ballot, decreeing that the Barr Amendment limited free speech and he judged that “the Constitution does not allow Congress to pre-clear acceptable viewpoints for public debate and expression.”
Initiative 59, the medical marijuana ballot measure, was approved by 69 percent of the District’s electorate in 1998. For the past 4 years Congress has threatened to withhold federal funding from the District if the measure even appears on a city ballot. In the past, Congress has overstepped its boundaries and passed legislation forbidding proponents of legalizing marijuana for medical purposes from even circulating their petition, despite the measure having passed in all of the city’s eight wards in 1998.
But this is a sensible piece of legislation that is overwhelmingly favored in the District. Studies have shown that marijuana usage alleviates pain associated with AIDS, cancer and other diseases. Barr’s constituents in Georgia may beg to differ on the issue of medical marijuana, and the White House national drug policy office might feel that such results are inconclusive. But ultimately, this is a local matter to be decided by D.C. voters. Voters in California, Maine, Nevada, among others, have approved the usage of marijuana for medicinal purposes. D.C. voters should have this right too.
