Even the U.S. drug czar, whose job is to combat the availability of drugs like marijuana, wants the District of Columbia free to set its own laws—for now.
“As a resident of the District, I might not agree about legalization, but I do agree with our own ability to spend our own money the way that we want to do that,” said Michael Botticelli, director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy , speaking at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
He suggested that a hands-off federal approach to state legalization might be best for the meantime, while not ruling out the possibility of future intervention: “I think our response to this is to continue to monitor what happens in Colorado and Washington, and in subsequent states, to see, one, if there needs to be a different response from the Department of Justice and from this administration, and what that might be—does it need tighter regulations—or what are the possible options the Department of Justice can take if it looks as if those criteria are not being met. ”
Congressional Republicans, led by Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md.), first launched a battle over pot in D.C. by sneaking a provision into the omnibus spending bill that bans the District from funding their recently-passed legalization measure.
Botticelli noted that President Obama also supports D.C.’s ability to legalize. “The president, as it relates to the District, I think was very clear that the District should stick to its home rule,” he said.
Last week, the president’s budget proposal inserted language into the measure that would only prohibit the use of federal funds, leaving city funds free. “[T]he president supports the principle of home rule and he believes that Congress should not interfere with local decisions by the citizens of the District of Columbia about how they should be governed,” the White House said.
D.C. lawmakers argue that, as it stands, the measure fails to effectively ban implementation, since the law was already enacted by voters. But on Monday, D.C.’s attorney general threatened local lawmakers with jail time should they hold a hearing on how to move forward with regulating marijuana.
Watch the clip below, via the Huffington Post:
