Robert Celt
New Member
The D.C. Council is set to vote tomorrow on a permanent pot club ban, and activists say that the legislation will impact the city's medical marijuana patients.
While the council already has a temporary ban in place preventing people from smoking marijuana in public places like bars and clubs, medical marijuana legislation passed in 2010 allows a patient to consume it in "a medical treatment facility when receiving medical care for a qualifying medical condition, if permitted by the facility."
However, the permanent ban under consideration says "a private club is a place to which the public is invited, but does not include a private residence," meaning that these medical facilities could be included in the ban, and the mayor could "revoke any license, certificate of occupancy, or permit held by an entity that knowingly permits a violation."
"This bill is stripping medical patients of rights they already have, and there's no carve-out to protect them," says Kaitlyn Boecker, policy coordinator at the Drug Policy Alliance's Office of National Affairs.
Adam Eidinger of DCMJ agrees that the ban has implications for medical marijuana patients. "The law is poorly written, and could be enforced in a very draconian way," he says.
However, lawyer Cheryl Stein says that interpreting the law that way is a big stretch. "Might it have been better to include a sentence about medical patients? Yes," she says. "But I'm not reading this as taking away anything from medical marijuana patients."
Ward 1 Councilmember Brianne Nadeau, who calls the legislation "very strict and very broad," says that legislators "seriously have to consider" how the threat of this legislation could affect the calculation for medical facilities deciding whether to permit consumption on location.
This vote is coming at an inconvenient time for organizers against the ban–many of D.C.'s drug advocates, including Eidinger, are in New York City for the U.N. General Assembly's Special Session on the Drug Problem.
The D.C. Council passed the permanent ban, which was introduced by Judiciary Chair and Ward 5 Councilmember Kenyan McDuffie, on a first reading on April 5 by one vote. Mayor Muriel Bowser, whose lobbying in January prevented an end to the ban, said she would sign the legislation.
In addition to McDuffie, Chairman Phil Mendelson, At-large Councilmember Anita Bonds, Ward 3 Councilmember Mary Cheh, Ward 4 Councilmember Brandon Todd, Ward 7 Councilmember Yvette Alexander, and Ward 8 Councilmember LaRuby May voted for the ban.
Some of the votes flummoxed council staffers. "I thought it was going to go one way, but it went another," Michael Austin, legislative director for May, told DCist shortly after the first reading.
The council had reached a compromise in early February to establish a task force that would come back in 120 days with recommendations regarding pot clubs. But now the D.C. Council is set to vote before that task force's first town hall meeting with the public, which is scheduled for tomorrow evening.
"I feel as though it's a slap in the face to those of us who voted in good faith" for the compromise in February, says Nadeau, who is on the task force. She adds that it will meet in full for the first time this Friday.
Mendelson said at the first reading that the ban would not undermine the task force, because it has a broader mandate.
Nadeau disagrees. "This task force is charged with examining clubs, period." She calls it "disingenuous" to say otherwise. "I can't understand what the charge of the task force is if we pass the permanent ban tomorrow."
The other councilmember on the task force–Ward 4's Brandon Todd, who voted in favor of the ban at the first reading–has not responded to a request for comment.
Attorney and marijuana advocate Paul Zukerberg questions the urgency of passing a permanent ban when a temporary one remains in place. "Why would we want to put a self-ban on ourselves, especially when there haven't been any problems?" he says. "It's a bad bill and it's a bad time."
Nadeau says she's been caucusing with her colleagues about the legislation, but isn't optimistic about the outcome. "I do think it'll be very hard to flip votes before tomorrow," she says.
News Moderator: Robert Celt 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: DC: Activists Say Pot Club Ban Would Roll Back Medical Marijuana Rights
Author: Rachel Kurzius
Contact: DCist
Photo Credit: None found
Website: DCist
While the council already has a temporary ban in place preventing people from smoking marijuana in public places like bars and clubs, medical marijuana legislation passed in 2010 allows a patient to consume it in "a medical treatment facility when receiving medical care for a qualifying medical condition, if permitted by the facility."
However, the permanent ban under consideration says "a private club is a place to which the public is invited, but does not include a private residence," meaning that these medical facilities could be included in the ban, and the mayor could "revoke any license, certificate of occupancy, or permit held by an entity that knowingly permits a violation."
"This bill is stripping medical patients of rights they already have, and there's no carve-out to protect them," says Kaitlyn Boecker, policy coordinator at the Drug Policy Alliance's Office of National Affairs.
Adam Eidinger of DCMJ agrees that the ban has implications for medical marijuana patients. "The law is poorly written, and could be enforced in a very draconian way," he says.
However, lawyer Cheryl Stein says that interpreting the law that way is a big stretch. "Might it have been better to include a sentence about medical patients? Yes," she says. "But I'm not reading this as taking away anything from medical marijuana patients."
Ward 1 Councilmember Brianne Nadeau, who calls the legislation "very strict and very broad," says that legislators "seriously have to consider" how the threat of this legislation could affect the calculation for medical facilities deciding whether to permit consumption on location.
This vote is coming at an inconvenient time for organizers against the ban–many of D.C.'s drug advocates, including Eidinger, are in New York City for the U.N. General Assembly's Special Session on the Drug Problem.
The D.C. Council passed the permanent ban, which was introduced by Judiciary Chair and Ward 5 Councilmember Kenyan McDuffie, on a first reading on April 5 by one vote. Mayor Muriel Bowser, whose lobbying in January prevented an end to the ban, said she would sign the legislation.
In addition to McDuffie, Chairman Phil Mendelson, At-large Councilmember Anita Bonds, Ward 3 Councilmember Mary Cheh, Ward 4 Councilmember Brandon Todd, Ward 7 Councilmember Yvette Alexander, and Ward 8 Councilmember LaRuby May voted for the ban.
Some of the votes flummoxed council staffers. "I thought it was going to go one way, but it went another," Michael Austin, legislative director for May, told DCist shortly after the first reading.
The council had reached a compromise in early February to establish a task force that would come back in 120 days with recommendations regarding pot clubs. But now the D.C. Council is set to vote before that task force's first town hall meeting with the public, which is scheduled for tomorrow evening.
"I feel as though it's a slap in the face to those of us who voted in good faith" for the compromise in February, says Nadeau, who is on the task force. She adds that it will meet in full for the first time this Friday.
Mendelson said at the first reading that the ban would not undermine the task force, because it has a broader mandate.
Nadeau disagrees. "This task force is charged with examining clubs, period." She calls it "disingenuous" to say otherwise. "I can't understand what the charge of the task force is if we pass the permanent ban tomorrow."
The other councilmember on the task force–Ward 4's Brandon Todd, who voted in favor of the ban at the first reading–has not responded to a request for comment.
Attorney and marijuana advocate Paul Zukerberg questions the urgency of passing a permanent ban when a temporary one remains in place. "Why would we want to put a self-ban on ourselves, especially when there haven't been any problems?" he says. "It's a bad bill and it's a bad time."
Nadeau says she's been caucusing with her colleagues about the legislation, but isn't optimistic about the outcome. "I do think it'll be very hard to flip votes before tomorrow," she says.
News Moderator: Robert Celt 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: DC: Activists Say Pot Club Ban Would Roll Back Medical Marijuana Rights
Author: Rachel Kurzius
Contact: DCist
Photo Credit: None found
Website: DCist
