District of Columbia Council Chair Linda Cropp and Mayor Marion Barry are two recent signatories of a petition drive to place a medical marijuana initiative on the city ballot, according to a recent press release by the AIDS awareness group ACT-UP.
The release also named all four of the candidates running in the December 2, 1998 special election for the at-large DC Council seat as signatories.
“The only council member to refuse my personal request to sign Initiative 57 has been Republican Carol Schwartz,” said ACT-UP spokesman Steve Michael. “This clearly indicates that there is broad based support for [medical marijuana.]
Repeated calls by NORML to Marion Barry’s office neither confirmed nor denied whether the mayor supports the legal use of medical marijuana. A spokeswoman from Linda Cropp’s office told NORML that she does not necessarily support Initiative 57, but believes that District voters should have the opportunity to decide the issue.
The District’s Initiative 57 would legalize the possession and cultivation of marijuana for medical purposes under a physician’s supervision. Members of ACT-UP filed the initiative earlier this year after interim Council Chair Charlene Drew Jarvis and U.S. Attorney Eric Holder proposed legislation to stiffen penalties for the possession of marijuana.
For more information, please contact ACT-UP @ (202) 547-9404.