The scale which was approved by the District of Columbia Board late last year mandates “automatic sealing of non-hazardous and non-convicted persons as well as shortening waiting times before a person is eligible to have their record stamped” and “will also expand the eligibility of those who can seal their record.” The bill was signed into law by Washington DC Mayor Muriel Bowser in January, but its promulgation has been delayed by an obscure part of the legislation process in our nation’s capital.
Laws in D.C. are subject to congressional oversight and approval — a requirement preventing the county from implementing legal marijuana sales, despite the fact that voters there legalized cannabis in 2014.
After Bowser signed the cannabis delisting action in January, the bill was referred to Congress. As explained by NORML, All “legislation must be subject to congressional review within 30 days before becoming law,” and in the absence of Congress’ involvement, the bill would become law.
That moment is now – or rather, on March 10, when the law officially entered into force.
NORML He has more on the new law:
The law provides for the automatic review and expungement of any convictions or citations for marijuana-related offenses that are subsequently decriminalized or legalized in the District of Columbia, as well as any records relating to only the simple possession of any amount of marijuana in violation of DC Code §48-904.01 ( d) (1) Before February 15, 2015. “The order requires that all cannabis-related deletion actions be processed by the courts by January 1, 2025.”
Paul Armignano, deputy director of NORML, praised the new law.
“Thousands of D.C. residents needlessly bear the burden and stigma of a past conviction for behavior that lawmakers, most Americans, and a growing number of states no longer consider a crime,” Armenato said. “Our sense of justice and our principles of fairness demand that the courts move quickly to right past wrongs of prohibiting and criminalizing cannabis.”
In 2021, it is It looks like the sale of legal cannabis may finally be out Coming to Washington, D.C
That’s because Senate Democrats at the time introduced a draft appropriations bill that didn’t include the so-called “Harris Rider,” a budget contestant named for Republican Congressman Andy Harris of Maryland who has appeared on every such bill since 2014. .
Harris Rider banned Washington, D.C. from engaging in legal commercial marijuana sales.
At the time, Bowser celebrated Clear Knight’s exclusion from the proposed bill.
“The Senate appropriations bill is a critical step in recognizing that in a democracy, D.C. residents must be governed by D.C. values,” Bowser’s office said at the time. “As we continue our march toward statehood in D.C., I want to thank the Chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Sen. Patrick Leahy, our good friend and Subcommittee Chair, Sen. Chris Van Hollen, and of course our hero on the Hill, Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton, for recognizing the will of D.C.’s voters. We urge Congress to pass a final spending bill that similarly removes all anti-home rule runners, allowing D.C. to spend our local money as we see fit.”
Activist groups pressured congressional Democrats to stand firm and drop Harris Ryder.
“On the one hand, Congress continues to make strides in advancing federal marijuana reform based on racial justice, while at the same time being responsible for banning the jurisdiction that has led the state in legalizing marijuana through this lens of being able to regulate it,” said Quinn Adesweye. Senior director for national policy at the Medicines Policy Alliance, in a statement last year: “This conflict and contradiction must end now.”
But it wasn’t to be.
The credits bill that eventually showed up last year included Harris Ryder.
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