“Members of the DC City government continue to prioritize policies that both advance and protect the freedoms of responsible cannabis consumers. These policies include providing patients with convenient access to regulated medical cannabis products, prohibiting certain employers from discriminating against those who use cannabis while off the job, and providing legal relief to those with past, low-level marijuana convictions.”
The Act provides for the automatic review and expungement of any convictions or citations specific to marijuana-related offenses that have subsequently been decriminalized or legalized in the District of Columbia. It requires all cannabis-specific expungements to be processed by the courts by January 1, 2025.
City lawmakers have provided final approval to a pair of bills that seek to significantly reform marijuana laws in the District of Columbia. But both bills still must undergo a 30-day Congressional review prior to becoming law.
Over 22,000 DC residents are legally authorized to access medical cannabis.
The Act states, “A public employer may not refuse to hire, terminate from employment, penalize, fail to promote, or otherwise take adverse employment action against an individual based upon the individual’s status as a qualifying patient.”
District of Columbia officials are moving forward with implementing a voter-approved initiative depenalizing offenses involving the personal possession and/or cultivation of cannabis by adults, which is anticipated to take effect at 12:01am tonight.
District of Columbia city officials this week moved forward with their intentions to implement a voter-approved municipal initiative depenalizing marijuana possession and cultivation offenses.
District lawmakers voted 10 to 1 in favor of “The Simple Possession of Small Quantities of Marijuana Decriminalization Amendment Act of 2013,” which amends District law involving the possession or transfer of up to ounce of marijuana from a criminal misdemeanor (punishable by up to 6 months incarceration and a maximum fine of $1,000) to a civil violation (punishable by a $25 fine, no arrest, no jail time, and no criminal record). Democrat Mayor Vincent C. Gray said that he intends to sign the measure into law.