Medical Marijuana Ban Overturned in D.C.

A federal law that prohibited District of Columbia residents from proposing, running or voting on a ballot initiative to legalize medical cannabis, has been overturned as an unconstitutional restriction on political speech.

In 1998, 69 percent of District voters approved a measure to legalize the medical use of marijuana. Congress responded with the so-called "Barr Amendment," named for its sponsor, Rep. Bob Barr (R-GA). The Barr Amendment blocked the implementation of the initiative and prohibited the District from spending appropriated federal funds to "enact or carry out" any law that reduces criminal penalties for marijuana or any Schedule I controlled substance.

Last December, the Washington D.C.-based Marijuana Policy Project, and several individual plaintiffs, filed a lawsuit against the federal government and the D.C. Board of Elections and Ethics (BOEE). They argued that the Barr Amendment violated D.C. residents' First Amendment right to utilize the District's ballot initiative process to engage in public debate on a subject of fundamental importance.

Federal Judge Emmet G. Sullivan agreed, and ruled March 28 that the Barr Amendment effectively prohibited the plaintiffs from gathering signatures to place another cannabis initiative on the ballot in November. "There can be no doubt that the Barr Amendment restricts plaintiffs' First Amendment right to engage in political speech," wrote Judge Sullivan.

Barr spoke out against the ruling and said the initiative was a backdoor effort to usurp federal law. "Clearly, the court today has ignored the constitutional right and responsibility of Congress to pass laws protecting citizens from dangerous and addictive narcotics, and the right of Congress to exert legislative control over the District of Columbia as the nation's capital," said Barr in a statement. "This ballot initiative was not about free speech, nor was the court correct in defining it as such. This initiative was about opening the door to drug legalization, and whether federal taxpayer dollars should be used to support a drug legalization agenda."

Barr has written to Attorney General John Ashcroft, asking the Justice Department to appeal the court's decision. But Judge Sullivan permanently enjoined the BOEE from applying the Barr Amendment to block a medical cannabis initiative for the District proposed by the Marijuana Policy Project (MPP).

"Because we won the lawsuit, we get to run a medical marijuana initiative in Washington D.C. this year," says Robert Kampia, executive director of the MPP and a plaintiff in the case. Given that 69 percent of D.C. voters approved the 1998 measure that removed criminal penalties for medical marijuana patients, Kampia believes a similar measure would win handily if it were placed on the ballot in November. "We are conducting a ballot drive starting tomorrow and we want to spark a congressional debate on medical marijuana because we know that Congress is not going to allow a local medical marijuana law without a fight," said Kampia.

Joyce Nalepka, president of Drug Free Kids: America's Challenge, a Maryland-based group that resists medical cannabis initiatives, wants that fight to continue. She is dismayed that the Barr Amendment was overturned and charges that the MPP is waging a "very professional misinformation campaign." "Bob was one of the few government officials who had the backbone to help kids in the District by keeping it from being even more saturated by marijuana and other drugs and letting people know that marijuana is not medicine," says Nalepka, who believes medical cannabis patients should be prosecuted under federal law. "They should be charged, they should enforce the law, it is there to protect the safety and health of the rest of us. I don't want people tooling down the street after they have smoked a joint for a backache."