Buried in the recently passed federal budget is a shocking attack on
democracy, engineered by congressional Republicans.

As reported by the Washington Post, Washington D.C. voters were to
decide Nov. 3 on Initiative 59, a medicinal marijuana ballot measure.
Without giving District residents a chance to register their views,
Republicans used a budget bill rider to kill the voter initiative even
before ballots were cast.

This rider bans funds in the D.C. budget from being spent on the
initiative.

Although ballots had been printed, the congressional action prevented
the Elections Board from counting and certifying the results. Hence
the ballot measure -- regardless of how many votes it received --
cannot become law.

You don't have to be a supporter of medicinal marijuana to regard this
latest congressional infringement as an insult to voters nationwide.

If citizens are denied peaceful protest and political action within
the law, what remains in the way of a remedy for their valid complaints?

The issue here is not marijuana. The issue is whether we will live in
freedom or under tyranny. The thought that Congress could even
consider snuffing out the people's right to vote on any issue,
including medicinal marijuana, used to be unthinkable.

Now there seems to be no end to these draconian measures as the
Constitution is shredded over this failed and harmful war on people
they call the war on drugs.

Gary Storck
Madison