Prior to 2015, the District had one of the nation’s highest per capita arrest rates for marijuana-related offenses — averaging one arrest every two hours.
What we do now will determine how successful we are next year.
“Democrats’ failure and the GOP’s continued resistance to any progress is out of step with voters’ opinion, is bad politics, and most importantly, it is bad public policy.”
Monitoring the Future has released their 2022 findings regarding cannabis use rates for 8th, 10th, and 12th grade students. The study found that rates for each cohort were largely unchanged from last year.
Provisions in the bill provide pathways so that those with misdemeanor marijuana convictions (and/or those convicted of most misdemeanors and fourth- or fifth-degree felonies) can petition the courts to have their records sealed.
City officials report that there are no longer any open cases specific to marijuana possession pending before the Municipal Court.
“Hundreds of thousands of Americans unduly carry the burden and stigma of a past conviction for behavior that most Americans, and a growing number of states, no longer consider to be a crime,” NORML’s Deputy Director Paul Armentano said. “Our sense of justice and our principles of fairness demand that public officials and the courts move swiftly to right the past wrongs of cannabis prohibition and criminalization.”
The District of Columbia’s city council has recently approved the Medical Cannabis Amendment Act, significantly expanding medical cannabis operations in DC.