CONGRESS SEEMS INTENT ON THWARTING DEMOCRACY

D.C. initiative is treated as an informal opinion poll, rather than a
serious vote

Congress seems intent on thwarting democracy and making sure that
hundreds of seriously ill people in the District of Columbia remain
subject to arrest and imprisonment for using medicinal marijuana.

In November of 1998, an initiative appeared on the ballot that would
remove criminal penalties for patients and their caregivers who
possess or grow marijuana for medical purposes in the nation's
capital. Local government was not permitted to count or release vote
totals because of a federal law that Congress had passed just 13 days
earlier.

A federal judge cleared the way for the votes to be released in a
court challenge to the amendment prohibiting the use of D.C. funds to
"conduct an election" on the medical-marijuana referendum. The court
recognized that the First Amendment applies even to D.C. residents.
The initiative passed by an overwhelming 69 percent.

Unfortunately, Congress recently amended the D.C. appropriations bill
to prohibit the D.C. government from spending any money to carry out
or implement the initiative. Because the bill has passed, last
November's initiative vote is treated as an informal public opinion
poll, rather than a serious vote by American citizens in a democratic
election.

It's bad enough that Congress wants to punish seriously ill people. It
is an outrage that Congress is willing to go so far as to thwart
democracy in the process.

Duane Grindstaff,
Kent