While it’s been legal to possess and consume cannabis in DC since February of 2015, citizens here can still only do it in their private homes, which leaves many rental housing residents — particularly tenants in Federally-subsidized Section 8 public housing — in a rough spot.
Thanks to a budget “rider” introduced by Maryland Rep. Andy Harris a year or so ago as part of a budget bill to avoid a government shutdown, the District Of Columbia is unable to use any of its city budget to implement cannabis taxation/regulation laws, or to implement laws to allow for communal smoking in clubs, bars or cafés and lift the public use ban. (Rep. Harris has had a long history of menacing DC citizens’ efforts to achieve self-determination; check out DCMJ’s previous adventures here.)
This means that most of us in DC who live in rental housing are forced to either go to somebody else’s house (basically, a “speakeasy”) or take our chances in public, in a park or someplace, where people can smell it — including the cops, who arrested 354 people last year for public smoking.
So, if you’re a DC citizen who lives in rental housing and are forced to go to a friend’s house or sneak around on the street because there’s noplace to go to have a civilized smoke at happy hour, thank Maryland Rep. Andy Harris.
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