District of Columbia

[budman]

Local News

10 Reasons D.C. Residents Should Say 'No' to Norton-Davis and Demand Real Statehood

THE D.C. STATEHOOD GREEN PARTY
http://www.dcstatehoodgreen.org

Monday, June 5, 2006

Contact:
Scott McLarty, DC Statehood Green Party Media Coordinator, 202-518-5624, mclarty@greens.org

Ten reasons why D.C. residents should reject the Norton-Davis bill for a voting seat in the House and support D.C. statehood instead

Statehood Greens warn that H.R. 5388 will take pressure off of Congress to provide D.C. residents with real democracy, derail progress towards statehood, and ultimately place another Republican in Congress.

The Norton-Davis bill provides for second-class citizenship in a second-class state; Statehood Greens urge D.C. residents to demand their full constitutional rights and self-determination.

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- DC Statehood Green Party leaders urged District of Columbia residents to reject the Norton-Davis bill granting D.C. a single voting seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, and to demand statehood instead.

The 'D.C. Fair and Equal House Voting Rights Act' (H.R. 5388), sponsored by Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.), Rep. Tom Davis (D-Va.), and two dozen other Congressmembers, passed in the Committee on Government Reform on May 18.

"Don't be fooled -- the Norton-Davis bill is a symbolic piece of legislation dressed up to look like democracy," said Gail Dixon, a Statehood Green, longtime statehood activist, and former elected member of the D.C School Board. "We call on Congress to grant us real democracy -- self-governance in the form of statehood. Democracy for D.C., with its African American majority population, is one of the last major legal civil rights hurdles."

The DC Statehood Green Party is the result of a merger in 1999 between the DC Green Party and the DC Statehood Party, which was founded in 1970 as part of the Civil Rights Movement and whose banner demand has been statehood for the District.

Statehood Greens offered ten major reasons to reject the Norton-Davis bill and pursue statehood for the District:

(1) The Norton-Davis bill grants full constitutional rights to a single District resident -- Eleanor Holmes Norton.

"Imagine if the outcome of the Montgomery bus boycott were that Dr. Martin Luther King alone was given the right to sit in front of the bus, while all other black citizens of Montgomery still had to sit in the back. In effect, that's what the Norton-Davis bill would enact," said Ms. Dixon.

(2) The Norton-Davis bill, which gives D.C. a single voting seat in the House, still leaves D.C. residents with less congressional representation than all other Americans, who get to elect two Senators as well as a Representative. When D.C. wins statehood, it will also gain two Senators and a Representative.

(3) Representation in a national legislature is not democracy.

"Throughout history, colonies have enjoyed voting seats in the legislatures of nations that conquered them, even while they suffered exploitation and suppression," said Adam Eidinger, former candidate for D.C.'s unpaid U.S. Representative position. "Our own Founding Fathers and Mothers fought for democracy and independence, not 'voting rights.' Patrick Henry never said 'Give me a seat in Parliament or give me death.' The only real democracy is self-governance for the people of D.C. -- statehood -- not this fake democracy Del. Norton and others are peddling."

(4) The voting seat afforded by the Norton Davis bill will not block Congress from imposing its will and veto power on D.C. In 1998, Congress overturned a ballot measure that passed with a 69% majority in D.C. (Initiative 59 for medical marijuana). Congress has also forced D.C. to adopt 'zero tolerance' laws; ordered Mayor Williams (through the appointed Financial Control Board) to dismantle D.C. General Hospital, the District's only full-service public health facility, imposed a charter school system; and outlawed needle exchange to prevent HIV transmission. Members of Congress who represent suburban districts in Virginia and Maryland have exploited D.C. for the benefit of their constituents, prohibiting D.C. from taxing commuters (every other city in the U.S. relies on commuter taxes) and pushing for a new convention center in 1999 to be paid for by a D.C. business surtax for the profit of suburban businesses. Congress members have sought to overturn local gun control laws, enact the death penalty, impose a school voucher program, and prohibit benefits for same-sex couples.

"Only full self-government -- statehood -- will stop Congress from forcing unwanted laws, policies, and budgets on DC and overturning laws and policies enacted by District voters and City Council," said said Anne Anderson, a long-time D.C. statehood activist. "The Norton-Davis bill does nearly nothing to increase the political power of D.C. citizens, because the new voting seat would be only one of 437, and is offset by the addition of a Republican voting seat in Utah under the bipartisan deal made to win support for H.R. 5388."

(5) The lack of statehood has made D.C. residents second-class U.S. citizens, denying them rights that all other U.S. citizens enjoy -- contrary to the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, which ensures equal protection under the law.

"This is why, ever since thousands of African Americans moved to D.C. in the 1950s to take federal jobs but had no control over local laws, one of the nicknames of the District has been 'The Last Plantation,'" said T.E. Smith, Ward 8 delegate to the Statehood Green Party's steering committee and a Vietnam War veteran. "The Norton-Davis bill will not change our colonial status. Ironically, President Bush is sending young men and women from D.C. to face injury and death fighting for the democratic rights of Iraqis -- rights they don't enjoy at home."

(6) If the Norton-Davis bill passes, Congress will still hold the power to revoke D.C.'s lone voting seat and repeal D.C.'s limited democratic powers. Under statehood, Congress would not have the power to revoke D.C. democracy. Except for the Southern states after they rebelled in the Civil War, Congress has never rescinded any state's right to govern itself.

(7) The Norton-Davis bill will set back the movement for full constitutional rights for District residents for decades, because Congress will consider democracy for D.C. a fait accompli.

"When the Democratic Party, at Ms. Norton's encouragement, removed the goal of D.C. statehood from the party's platform in 2004 it left only one major party in D.C. that supports statehood -- the DC Statehood Green Party," said Rick Tingling-Clemmons, Ward 7 representative to the party's Steering Committee.

(8) Since the decisions of D.C. elected officials are all subject to Congressional approval and veto power, and the elected Representative would be the District's sole voting representative in Congress, the bill will give this representative sole and discretionary 'gatekeeper' power over all D.C. laws, policies, and budgets -- contrary to the principle of self-determination, which is the basis of democracy.

"Leverage over all D.C. political agenda will be invested in a one individual -- Ms. Norton. This is the exact opposite of democracy," said Jay Marx, DC Statehood Green Party steering committee member and former candidate for City Council Ward 2 seat.

(9) If the bill passes, it's quite possible that the Supreme Court will overturn it, since the U.S. Constitution grants voting representation in Congress solely to states. The Supreme Court will not overturn an Act of Congress that allows D.C. to become a state.

"This might well be the Republican strategy -- make a deal with Democrats to add a new Democratic D.C. seat and a new Republican Utah seat. Then, after the passage of the Norton-Davis bill, someone will file a suit to block Ms. Norton from taking her seat in the House, on constitutional grounds. If the Supreme Court acts on its alleged pro-Republican bias, D.C. will lose its seat while the Republicans get to keep their Utah seat. Anyone who believes that Republicans aren't capable of such a plan have forgotten how the Republican Party redistricted Texas, as well as the election irregularities in Florida in 2000 and in Ohio and other states in 2004," said John Gloster, a long-time party member.

(10) If a court overturns the bill and requires a constitutional amendment, then, procedurally, full democracy will be easier to achieve than mere voting rights in Congress, since a vote for statehood would not require the 2/3 majority necessary to pass constitutional amendment. In 1846, an Act of Congress removed Alexandria and parts of Arlington from the District and gave it to the state of Virginia. This precedent proves that Congress, through legislation requiring a simple majority, can change the District's borders and reduce the constitutionally mandated federal enclave to include only the federal properties (White House, Capitol, Mall, etc.), thus freeing the rest of D.C. to choose statehood by a plebiscite vote.

MORE INFORMATION

The DC Statehood Green Party
http://www.dcstatehoodgreen.org

Stand Up! for Democracy in D.C. Coalition
http://www.standupfordemocracy.org

The D.C. Statehood Papers: Writings on D.C. Statehood & self-government by Sam Smith
http://prorev.com/dcsthdintro.htm

Twenty D.C. Citizens Lawsuit: The case for full democracy and equality
http://www.dccitizensfordemocracy.org

The D.C. Fair and Equal House Voting Rights Act (H.R. 5388)
/thomas.loc.gov/


Disclaimer: State, local, and candidate press releases made available here represent the opinions of the original source only. Opinions expressed by a state party or candidate do not necessarily represent the views of the Green Party of the United States. State party contact information, when provided with candidate releases, does not imply state party endorsement of the opinions expressed nor of the candidate (prior to gaining formal nomination by the party).
___

Office: PO Box 57065 Washington, D.C. 20037
Email: office@gp.org 202-319-7191 or toll-free (US): 866-41GREEN

[Midnight toker]

GW opts for no testing

by Andrew Alberg
Hatchet Staff Writer
Issue date: 10/12/06 Section: Sports
The Hatchet
Page 1 of 1

Each year the University warns athletes in accordance with NCAA policy of the consequences of using drugs, but the GW athletic program does not have its own policy in place to curb drug use.

The NCAA prohibits the use of street and performance enhancing drugs, but only tests one team in each Division I school per year. The NCAA's test does not look for street drugs, such as marijuana and heroin, and GW has no drug testing policy in place, leaving student-athletes able to use marijuana and other drugs with little consequence or chance of being caught.

Jack Kvancz, GW's director of athletics, said he does not see it fair to test athletes internally.

"We don't do any testing during the season," Kvancz said. "I think you can get into a whole thing of what's acceptable to one person isn't acceptable to somebody else. If we had a drug policy, it would be a policy for everyone, and it would probably be challenged. I don't know if it's the best thing in the world to do or not the best thing in the world to do."

At the University of Virginia, the school privately tests all its athletes for banned substances, including street drugs, prior to their season's start. The school also randomly selects some players to be tested during their season, said Virginia's Assistant Athletic Director and Head Athletic Trainer Ethan Saliba. If an athlete tests positive, he is forced to go through drug education and counseling, Saliba said. Three positive tests at Virginia would result in removal from competition.

"The goal is to assure safety and make sure they are educated," Saliba said. "Coaches can definitely increase the severity of the consequence; they can't lessen it. Some coaches have an absolute 'no tolerance' policy.

"Our policy is to keep this as internal information," Saliba said.

Many GW athletes do not know that they will not be tested for marijuana. Sophomore lacrosse player Emily Sternbach said all athletes are required to watch a movie about drugs produced by the NCAA before competing, but said that the video is old and seems outdated.

"I don't think anyone knows that (the NCAA and GW don't) test for marijuana," Sternbach said. "The video says anything you take or smoke will be caught."

Marijuana, heroin and THC are forbidden under NCAA Bylaw 31.2.3.1, listed in the NCAA's Drug-Testing Program, which classifies them as banned street drugs. However, the only occasion where an NCAA athlete may be tested for street drugs is during a championship, said Mary Wilfert, the NCAA's Drug Testing Administrator.

The NCAA tests some championship events annually, while others are tested less frequently, Wilfert said. Each championship is tested at least once every five years.

If a championship event is selected, winners and top-seeded athletes, along with randomly selected participants, are tested.

No data on which players or teams were tested is made public, Wilfert added, but senior Jack Hornberger, captain of the men's water polo team, said he has not been tested during his four years at GW.

Wilfert said about 12,000 NCAA athletes are tested every year. There are 223,421 athletes that compete in Divisions I and II competition, according to the NCAA Web site. Division III athletes are only tested during championship events.

NCAA selects the team tested during campus visits using a variety of factors, Wilfert said, including history of drug use in the sport. For instance, baseball is more likely to be tested than golf because the sport has frequently had drug abusers in the past, she said. The NCAA tests all football programs each year.

The players on the team who are tested are randomly chosen.

"It's not possible to test all players, but what our current testing program does is it puts all Division I athletes on notice that at any time during the year, they could be tested," Wilfert said. "They may not be tested, but it serves as a deterrent."

A study done in 2004 by the Arrestee Drug Abuse Monitoring program, a National Institute of Justice program, reported that 18.9 percent of college students used marijuana in the past month, 33.3 percent used the drug in the past year and 49.1 percent in a lifetime.

An athlete can test positive for marijuana for a few days after a one-time use, or up to a month after stopping in the case of a chronic smoker, said Cynthia Kuhn, a Pharmacology professor at Duke Medical Center.

Kuhn said the use of marijuana would adversely affect athletic performance.

Kuhn said: "I can't imagine a sport where your performance wouldn't worsen on marijuana than not on marijuana."

-Daniel Gardner contributed to this report.

[palmspringsbum]

<span class=postbold>Drug War Chronicle - world’s leading drug policy newsletter</span>

Feature: Students Lobby and Learn in DC as SSDP Comes to Town

from Drug War Chronicle, Issue #462, 11/24/06

Students for Sensible Drug Policy (SSDP), the nation's leading campus-based drug reform organization, held its annual conference last weekend in the shadow of the US Capitol in Washington, DC. More than 300 students from 70 campuses in the US and Canada heard from movement luminaries, studied the nuts and bolts of campus organizing, took care of organizational business, and put theory into practice with a day of lobbying for drug reform issues on Capitol Hill.

<table class=posttable align=right width=300><tr><td class=postcell><img class=postimg width=300 src=bin/ssdp_panel.jpg></td></tr><tr><td class=postcap>Media luminaries Bill Press & Clarence Page, with panel moderator Ryan Grim & SSDP executive director Kris Krane</td></tr></table>After a couple of days of well-deserved post-conference decompression, SSDP leaders were ready to declare that the event had achieved its goals. "We think the conference was a fantastic success," said SSDP communications director Tom Angell. "We had about 300 students from across the US and Canada converge on DC to plan strategies for ending the war on drugs and its harmful impact on our generation. And this conference wasn't just about meeting each other and planning for the future -- it was about making change in the nation's capital while we were all here. We had 85 lobby meetings with members of Congress or their staffers Friday," he told Drug War Chronicle.

After being revved-up by a brief visit and pep-talk from Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) late Friday morning, students hit Congress to lobby for repeal of the law that spurred SSDP's formation in 1998, the Higher Education Act's drug provision, which so far has barred some 200,000 students from receiving financial aid because of drug convictions, and other issues like student drug testing.

In several instances, while meetings were set with staffers, members of Congress made at least brief appearances. In at least two meetings, with Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA) and Rep. Bart Gordon (D-TN), students were able to sit down with the members themselves, Angell reported.

In addition to actually influencing members of Congress, SSDP's lobbying day had the added benefit of energizing the students. "A lot of them were really excited about lobby day," Angell explained. "This was the first time many of them had ever talked to legislative staffers about changing laws they care about."

"The whole thing has been very fulfilling -- I'm really learning a lot," said University of Maryland student Stacia Costner, who was one of more than three dozen Maryland students who showed up for the conference.

That made the Terrapin delegation one of the largest. Other states bringing dozens of students to Washington were Florida and Rhode Island.

But if the conference wasn't just about student activists meeting each other, that was still a big part of it. While much was learned on the Hill and in the conference's formal sessions, students took full advantage of their free time during the weekend to meet and greet each other, compare war stories, and share lessons learned.

Another student in attendance, Jimmy Devine of Franklin Pierce College in New Hampshire, told the Chronicle students there were starting a harm reduction center. "We want to provide factual information beyond 'just say no,'" he said. "We want to help kids, and this conference is going to help us learn how better to do that."

"One of the most exciting things was that students from all across the country were able to come together, meet one another, and realize they are not alone on their campuses, that there are other students just like them working on the same issues on their own campuses," said Angell. "It'll be exciting to see what happens on these 70 campuses when the students go back this semester."

"We are trying to build a real student movement," said SSDP executive director Kris Krane as he opened the conference itself Saturday morning. "We are a force to be reckoned with. We are recognized in Congress as a powerful lobbying force and in the press as a credible voice for change."

Given the national political atmosphere in recent years, SSDP's road has been bumpy after an initial meteoric rise, Krane conceded. "The war on terror made recruitment more difficult, and the number of chapters dipped," he said. "We shied away from the anti-war rhetoric, but this is the true anti-war movement for our generation. The excesses of the war on terror were preceded by the excesses of the war on drugs. Whether you are talking about snitches, asset forfeiture, racial profiling, or mandatory minimum sentences, every violation of individual rights and liberties in the Patriot Act got its start in the drug war."

After Krane opened the session, the students had the opportunity to hear from many of the most prominent leaders of the drug reform movement, including an opening panel consisting of Ethan Nadelmann of the Drug Policy Alliance, Allen St. Pierre of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, Steph Sherer of the medical marijuana defense group Americans for Safe Access, and representatives of the Marijuana Policy Project. Sadly, MPP executive director Rob Kampia, the man behind the Nevada marijuana tax and regulate initiative, was taken ill and unable to attend. He was replaced by MPP director of governmental relations Aaron Houston.

"We are the people who want to smoke pot and get high," said Nadelmann to the surprised laughter and cheers of the crowd. "It's meaningful in our lives, and we don't want to be treated as criminals. But that's not all we are. We are also the people who hate drugs. We wish there could be a drug-free society, but we realize the war on drugs is not the way to do it," Nadelmann continued. "And we are the people who don't really give a damn about drugs, but who care about the Bill of Rights, the Constitution, racial justice, and living in a society that ranks first in per capita incarceration. All of us believe the war on drugs is not the way."

Nadelmann delivered a chilling warning about the future of the drug war. "In the next five or ten years," he predicted, "incarceration rates may be leveling off, but more and more people will be controlled outside of prison cells. Drug testing is becoming ever more omnipresent, the use of electronic bracelets and GPS devices is growing, we are heading toward a total surveillance society," he prophesied. "Internal surveillance of your body and external surveillance of your behavior. Little by little, we become more accustomed to depriving more and more people of little bits of freedom. We are approaching a totalitarian society."

That prospect makes the struggle to end the drug war all the more critical, Nadelmann told the rapt crowd. "We are fighting for what is best for this country and for the values of the enlightenment," he said. "We are fighting for a society where nobody gets punished for what they put in their body absent harm to others."

One of the most well-attended Saturday sessions -- and one of SSDP's conference booking coups -- was the joint appearance by media mavens Chicago Tribune columnist Clarence Page and MSNBC pundit Bill Press, both of whom addressed the problematic nature of media coverage of the drug war. For Press, the run-of-the-mill, uncritical daily drug war reporting can largely be explained by reportorial fear and ignorance.

"Reporters don't know the issue and they believe the bullshit they're fed by the politicians and the drug czar," he said. "We've spent billions of dollars and it has gotten us nothing except a waste of money and full prisons. But reporters are also afraid if they start reporting seriously, they might hurt their careers."

For Page, it was less fear and ignorance than complacency and unawareness. "Most editors aren't against fairness in reporting in drug policy," said the nationally known commentator. "Our generation broke things open in the 1960s and 1970s, but there was so much movement toward decriminalization then that there is something of a false impression that we do a lot less marijuana law enforcement than we really do. The last three drug czars all told me 'we don't arrest anyone for marijuana anymore,'" Page laughed.

It wasn't just the old media addressing the conference. Some of the drug war blogosphere's brightest stars also made appearances. The Cato Institute's Radley Balko, author of the blog The Agitator, stunned students with his exposition on the growth of law enforcement SWAT teams and their permutation into essentially little more than drug squads.

"SWAT teams are expensive, and there aren't enough hostage takings and barricade situations to justify them, so we see a sort of mission creep where they are being used in less and less violent situations and are now primarily used for drug raids," Balko explained, citing his review of raids gone bad, "Overkill: The Rise of Paramilitary Policing in America." "There were about 3,000 SWAT raids a year in the early 1980s," Balko noted. "Today, there are 40,000 a year."

<table class=posttable align=right width=300><tr><td class=poscell><img class=postimg src=bin/ssdp_bloggers.jpg></tr></td><tr><td class=postcap>Intellectual capital at the conference -- leading drug reform bloggers Scott Morgan, Radley Balko, Nick Gillespie & Peter Guither</td></tr></table>Another leading drug war blogger, Peter Guither of Drug War Rant, joined DRCNet associate director David Guard and Common Sense for Drug Policy's Doug McVay in one of the Sunday nuts and bolts workshops. Guither, Guard and McVay interacted with motivated students in the session on how to articulate concise, effective arguments for drug reform.

This reporter spoke about Afghanistan's opium trade at another well-attended panel, this one on international dimensions of US drug policy. I was joined by Sanho Tree of the Institute for Policy Studies Drug Policy Project, who illuminated the adverse results of coca crop eradication in Colombia. Also on the panel were prominent academic drug policy specialists Mark Kleiman of UCLA and Peter Reuter of the University of Maryland. Somewhat surprisingly, the panel saw little controversy, as Reuter and Kleiman both agreed with the other panelists that US efforts to address its domestic drug problem by attacking drug crops overseas produce at best marginal results.

For reasons of length, no single report can cover everything that went on in three days of lobbying, listening, and learning. Suffice it to say that SSDP crafted a comprehensive set of sessions and activities designed to inform and energize its student base.

And the organization is looking to the future. "What are we going to do about race and diversity?" SSDP's Krane asked a sea of mainly white faces at the farewell session. "What are our goals?" SSDP knows very well what its immediate goals are, but it has also shown it realizes that a successful movement needs constant introspection, not just constant action.

[palmspringsbum]

<table class=posttable align=right width=230><tr><td class=postcell><img class=postimg src=bin/taking-a-hit.jpg></tr></td></table>Jan. 12, 2007

Taking a Hit

<span class=postbold>Pot smokers will have to adjust to D.C.’s new smoking ban.</span>

By Jessica Gould
The Washington City Paper


Josh Burdette, door-staff supervisor of the 9:30 Club, says he’s watched stoners go to great lengths to smuggle weed inside. “The club has seen thousands of mechanisms,” he says. “Some that look like they were built in shop class and others that look like they were cobbled together by a 2-year-old.”

Burdette has busted people for puffing on pieces of fruit and has also discovered “thousands of dollars of glassware....We’ve had a little bit of everything,” he says. He once did a pat-down search on a patron and heard something clatter to the floor. “Either a robot just fell apart or a pipe fell out of his pocket,” he remembers thinking. “It just rolled down his pant leg...and right up next to my foot.”

Burdette says the 9:30 Club has always had a “zero-tolerance policy” when it comes to marijuana. As of Jan. 2, enforcing that policy got a lot easier, as the city’s new smoking ban went into effect. “While the taking away of the cover of smoke might eliminate one way to get around the law, there are others we’ll look out for,” he says.

Others, eh? Much has been said about the city’s new smoking ban—but what about the ban’s effects on D.C.’s sneakiest smokers? Are the days of getting high at D.C.’s nightclubs over? Where were the city’s herbal hot spots, anyway? And what happens now?

Clarence Brown, a doorman and bartender at the Velvet Lounge who’s also worked at the 9:30 Club, the Black Cat, and Tracks, says he saw people light up in all of those establishments. “Usually they would stand in the middle of the crowd...and try smoking a bowl. The thing that would give them away is that they would have to keep lighting it. You don’t have to keep lighting a cigarette.”

More blatant blazers almost always got caught, says Joe Easley of the D.C. band Statehood. He recalls getting a whiff of weed during shows at the Black Cat, and then, within minutes, seeing a security guard swoop in and nab the stoners. “Shows on the mainstage, when it’s packed, you could smell someone smoking weed, and then a few minutes later they would be pulled out,” he says.

Now they’re likely to be pulled out even faster, says Black Cat owner Dante Ferrando. The club busts pot smokers “once or twice a year,” he says, and offenders are generally understanding. “There’s no way to say, ‘Oh, I didn’t think it was illegal.’…For us, it’s more frequent for the band to say, ‘Oh, can we smoke pot in here?’ and we say, ‘No, it’s not Amsterdam. Sorry.’ ”

It’s not just the bands and customers trying to get high at D.C.’s nightspots, either. One 9:30 Club employee was fired after he was caught smoking pot on the premises. It was March 2005, and Queens of the Stone Age—“a stoner band, ironically,” he says—was scheduled to play. Before the show, he went to the club’s basement and walked into the large refrigerator room where kegs and boxes of beer were kept. “I was kind of standing in front of a keg.…My manager came down to tell me something,” he says. “I was basically caught red-handed...I didn’t stick around for the show.”

The former employee, who prefers to remain anonymous, says he has stopped smoking weed in bars and clubs, arguing that public pot-smoking is too perilous now that the smoking ban is in effect. “Lighting up a cigarette in a bar is conspicuous enough, and the sweet, sweet aroma of marijuana is too obvious to miss.…It might be R.I.P.—in memoriam pot—in clubs, at least until after-hours.”

After-hours, or maybe just outdoors. Prince George’s County banned smoking in all eating and drinking establishments in 2005. True to the letter of the law, at Crossroads Entertainment Complex in Bladensburg on Jan. 6, the only haze inside came from the venue’s mist machine. “Marijuana is not something we permit,” says Lisa Hollomand, who handles marketing and promotions for the club.

But outside Crossroads, it’s a different story, says Vincent Hawkins, a security guard who patrols the establishment’s interconnected parking lots. Hawkins says that on Wednesdays, when the club hosts a college party, the crowd at Crossroads is younger and much more likely to get high. Sometimes they drive around the club’s darkened lots while weed wafts out of their windows, he says, or they simply linger in their cars. When they do step out, he says, they go out of their way to disguise the smell. “I’ve seen one lady, she was really wild,” he says. “She stripped down to her bra and panties, and she was standing there and she put lotion on her body, and then she started putting hand sanitizer on. She was standing right here. Her whole body smelled like weed.”

Hawkins, who has worked at Crossroads since October 2006, says the club is clamping down on parking-lot tokers. “I can tell you, when I first got here, I saw a lot more of it,” he says. “They don’t want anything that’s detrimental to the club.”

Just like the folks over in P.G. County, it seems D.C.’s weed smokers will have to take their fire outside. On Jan. 8, two Mount Pleasant residents huddled in the Raven Grill’s doorway, sharing a joint. The man, who asked not to be named, says he has gotten high at several D.C. nightspots, though “the Raven’s the coolest.” Asked whether the pair would be smoking under the Raven’s roof if it were not for the smoking ban, the woman answered, “Hell yes.…It’s cold out here.”

At Chief Ike’s Mambo Room in Adams Morgan, a barfly confessed to “puff puff”-ing at establishments across the city. He said he would be “very less likely” to burn one down postban but called the ban “a good move” because it means people are becoming more health-conscious.

“Pretty soon people will have to smoke cigarettes outside but will be able to smoke weed inside,” he predicted, pulling out a card identifying him as a “medical cannabis volunteer.”

[palmspringsbum]

Senate passes NORML's resolution

Posted Sunday, February 11 2007 11:46:55 pm

By Erica Mandell
Campus News Reporter
The Daily Colonial

The Student Association adopted CASE, a resolution to support Cannabis-Alcohol Sanction Equalization, at their meeting last week. The resolution passed with a vote of 11 to seven with one abstaining.

The resolution called on the SA to recognize that “the recreational use of cannabis by students at The George Washington University poses a lesser risk to both users and the GW community than either alcohol or tobacco.” Its purpose is to “reduce sanctions for responsible cannabis use by students of The George Washington University.”

The sponsoring student organization, GW NORML (National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws), is dedicated to educating the community about responsible marijuana use and lobbying for the protection of the rights of users.

According to D.C. law, possession of alcohol by minors and possession of marijuana are both misdemeanors. GW NORML, therefore, argues that these two offenses deserve equal treatment under University policies.

Currently, possession of illegal drugs and/or paraphernalia with residue constitutes a violation of the University drug policy.

The minimum punishment for a first time offender is a $50 fine, required participation in a drug abuse education program, and eviction from the residence halls. The violator also loses any financial aid.

A second time offender receives a $100 fine as well as an evaluation by a certified service at the student’s expense.

Finally, a third time offender meets with the Dean to consider whether or not they should continue at the University.

Manufacture, distribution, or possession with the intent to distribute drugs is sanctioned with a one year suspension.

However,those who violate the alcohol policy receive the same punishment without being evicted from the residence halls or losing any financial aid. A violator who is taken to the hospital receives amnesty from punishment for a first time offense.

Policy rhetoric aside, the drug policy is commonly referred to as a “no tolerance policy.” Where the alcohol policy has been deemed a “three strike policy.”

GW NORML finds the discrepancy between the consequences illogical.

In their presentation to the Senate, they said that violent crimes are the result of alcohol and not drugs, also adding that the current University policy has not deterred marijuana use as students continue to use marijuana despite the consequences.

During a period of debate within the Senate, GW NORML addressed concerns for softening punishment for marijuana use. Some of this concern stemmed from what is known as the “Gateway Theory.”

This theory hypothesizes that marijuana often leads to the use of habit forming drugs, or drugs with more severe physical consequences. Greg Hersh ‘08, President of GW NORML, however, said that research does not support this theory.

“Adolescent marijuana use is not a reliable predictor of later substance abuse, according to clinical trial data published in The American Journal of Psychiatry,” according to the CASE Resolution.

While it is ultimately up to the Board of Trustees to change University policy, GW NORML is focused on emphasizing student support.

“We’ve been in contact with many, many who share our sentiment,” said Hersh.

Senators were also equally enthusiastic about formalizing support for their cause.

“This is going to be as the SA the most important thing we do this year. We have students here who actually care,” said Sen. Kevin Kozlowski ‘09 (ESIA-U).

“People have said to me, thank God the SA finally picked up something I care about,” said Sen. Jessica Jacobson ’09 (ESIA-U).

Sen. Michael Gettlin (SB-G) and others were hesitant however. The most common objections resulted from the belief that only those with more medical expertise would be able to make proper decisions regarding the effects of marijuana. Some also highlighted the fact that while alcohol is eventually legal to consume, marijuana is not.

Still others disagreed with the University’s current discrimination.

“Marijuana unlike alcohol is not lethal or addictive,” said Sen. Luke Moses ‘07(CCAS-U).

“Alcohol poisoning is linked to hundreds of preventable deaths each year in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control, while cannabis cannot cause death by overdose,” says the Resolution.

GW NORML was pleased with the evening’s vote. Senate support for the resolution cannot actually change University policy, it does however, “offer legitimacy to our cause,” said Hersh.

The group says it is confident that the SA represents student feeling, but their work does not end with the Senate. They aim to pass a referendum to allow for the expression of student voice on the subject. If a referendum passes it would bind the Senate to put a measure on the run-off election ballot for a vote.

Administrative change is still viewed as a long shot by some students despite its logic.

“I think they should [change the policy.] Both are illegal so the Administration should treat them equally,” said Laura Salema ’09.

Sapir Elazar, vice-president of GW NORML was also pleased with the evening’s outcome. “Our resolution was very well cited,” adding that the vote required a moral evaluation as well as a medical one.

Elazar described the organization’s members as lobbyists, and said this is only the beginning of their fight.

"I think this is an important first step in the Senate working for what students want as opposed to internal procedure. I would like to take it even further and advocate for this resolution with the administration,” said Sen. Christopher Rotella ‘08 (CCAS-U).

GW NORML’s next step is to endorse an SA presidential candidate who will continue to support their cause. The endorsement will take place tonight at 7 p.m.

See the Code of Student Conduct and Senate Resolution SB-S07-04 for more information.

[palmspringsbum]

House subcommittee OKs pot on D.C. ballot

By: Michael Neibauer | Examiner Staff Writer
the Washington Examiner | June 28, 2009

A House appropriations subcommittee has lifted a long-standing budget rider banning the District government from spending any money to decriminalize marijuana.

The Financial Services panel, which has oversight of D.C., has removed from the 2010 budget 11-year-old language outlawing the District’s use of federal or local funds to legalize marijuana or reduce penalties for its possession or distribution.

“This is definitely something we’ve been working with Congress on for a few years now and communicated with the committee about,” said Bruce Mirken, spokesman for the Marijuana Policy Project. “It’s taken a while to get it done, but it looks like maybe this will be the year that it happens.”

The financial services budget, marked up Thursday, “takes further steps towards reducing undue congressional interference in local affairs,” Rep. Jose Serrano, the subcommittee chairman, said in a statement.

Serrano, D-N.Y., said the budget bill “allows the District to conduct and implement a referendum on use of marijuana for medical purposes as has been done in various states.”

The District voted on medical marijuana once before, in 1998, but the votes were declared invalid. Former Rep. Bob Barr raced to have his anti-legalization language added to the budget two weeks before the initiative vote was held. When the ballots were unofficially tallied nearly a year after they were cast, it was learned that 69 percent of voters backed legalization.

If added to the ballot now, it will pass again, said Chuck Thies, a political strategist who worked on the 1998 pro-initiative campaign.

“I look forward to it being on the ballot next year,” he said. “I expect there would be a well-funded, well-organized citywide effort for 2010.”

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administrative is firmly against the legalization of medical marijuana, arguing proponents “are spending huge amounts of money to encourage a greater tolerance for drug use.” Smoked marijuana “has not withstood the rigors of science — it is not medicine and it is not safe,” the DEA argues.

The financial services budget bill also eliminates a longtime ban on the use of local funds for abortion, and it discontinues the ban on the use of funds for domestic partnership registration.