Vincent Gray, mayor of Washington, DC, has signed a bill that will decriminalize weed in our nation’s capital. Under the new legislation, possession of up to an ounce will be punishable only with a $25 fine, but you still won’t be able to smoke in public or sell the plant legally.
In order to be enacted into law, however, the bill must pass through and be approved by U.S. Congress — an antiquated policy that’s somehow still in effect for all D.C. legislation. Eleanor Holmes Norton, D.C.’s delegate in the House of Representatives, says she’ll push back if any of her colleagues put up a fight. “If Members try to interfere, however, I will stoutly defend D.C.’s right to pass such legislation, just as 17 states have already done,” she said earlier this month.
