
 
 Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md.). (Cliff Owen/AP) 
 
 Shortly after noon Wednesday, the Republicans of the House Appropriations Committee (plus one Democrat) voted to block the District’s recently passed marijuana decriminalization law. Leading the charge was Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md.), who said the measure was “bad policy” that would harm children. 
 
 But District lawyers are now exploring whether he might have actually moved to, in effect, legalize marijuana possession instead. 
 
 Two persons familiar with the matter but not authorized to speak to the media said the D.C. attorney general’s office is examining the potential effect of the Harris amendment, which is now part of a spending bill headed to the House floor but will not become law until the Senate approves a companion bill and compromise legislation passes both houses. 
 
 Even if the amendment survives a Senate conference, the decriminalization law converting marijuana possession from a misdemeanor into a $25 civil citation is likely to pass a congressional review period and take effect beforehand, sometime in mid to late July. 
 
 If the amendment — which bars the city from spending any funds to “enact or carry out any law, rule, or regulation to legalize or otherwise reduce penalties associated with the possession, use, or distribution [of marijuana and other drugs] for recreational use” — then takes effect after the decriminalization statute is officially on the books, the city would be in the odd position of having a decriminalization law that it could not enforce. 
 
 Pedro Ribeiro, a spokesman for Mayor Vincent C. Gray (D), acknowledged the matter is under legal review but declined to address the de facto legalization scenario. “This potential unintended consequence only underscores why Congress should not meddle in local D.C. laws,” he said. 
 
 But the officials familiar with the matter said the amendment could prevent the police department from printing citations, prevent cops from writing and processing them, and prevent the city government from adjudicating them. The upshot is that there might be no penalty for minor marijuana possession, they said. 
 
 The federal law against marijuana possession would still be applicable, but a mayor and/or police chief could order the police department to make small-time drug collars a low, if not the lowest, law-enforcement priority — which has happened in several major jurisdictions. Ribeiro would not address how Gray would react in those circumstances. 
 
 A spokeswoman for Harris did not return an e-mail seeking comment on the scenario. 

 
 
 Rep. Andy Harris (R-MD). (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) 
 
 Though the D.C. Council passed a bill to decriminalize small amounts of marijuana, which was later signed into law by Mayor Vince Gray, the future of relaxed pot laws in the District is still in jeopardy, thanks to a committee in the U.S. House of Representatives. 
 
 Earlier today, the House's Appropriations Committee passed an amendment introduced by Maryland Rep. Andy Harris to block D.C.'s marijuana decriminalization law. The amendment passed in a 28 to 21 vote. 
 
 So what does this mean for the future of D.C.'s marijuana decriminalization law? Is it up in smoke, thanks to 27 Republicans and one Democrat? Is this the end for the Simple Possession of Small Amounts of Marijuana Decriminalization Act of 2013? Hardly. 
 
 Now that the amendment passed the House's Appropriations Committee, it'll be voted on by the entire House of Representatives. If that passes, it still has to pass a vote with the majority of the Senate, and then it has to be formally approved by President Obama. Only three times in the history of Home Rule has a D.C. bill been disapproved by a president. 
 
 But, even if that was to happen, there's a chance that the House's amendment could create de facto legalization of marijuana in D.C., according to one group. Yes, you read that right. 
 
 "Basically what would happen is, this amendment—the way it's written—would not re-criminalize or rewrite the laws around criminalization of marijuana," Dr. Malik Burnett, Policy Manager for the Drug Policy Alliance, says. "Police issuing tickets to people who they found to have marijuana on their person wouldn't be able to do so, that would create a sort of de facto legalization." 
 
 While the law is scheduled to take effect in D.C. on July 17th, it wouldn't be until much later that the amendment would take effect, if it did happen to pass the House and Senate, and was signed by the President. So if it were to pass, and D.C. police officers who are writing tickets for the possession of small amounts of marijuana under the law are suddenly forced to stop doing that because of this amendment, then they wouldn't be able to arrest for possession, because the amendment does not address the criminalization of marijuana—just the decriminalization of it. Thus it "would have practical effect of making marijuana possession essentially legal in the Nation’s Capital," Burnett says. 
 
 Of course, this is something that, once Andy Harris figures out, he will almost certainly rewrite the language of the amendment to ensure doesn't happen. Because if it did, well, irony (and no, not the Alanis Morrisette definition). 
 
 But it's still a long shot that the amendment makes it past the House, Senate, and gets signed off by the President. Still, the whole amendment makes Harris and the House Republicans look bad, Burnett thinks, especially at a time when marijuana decriminalization laws are popping up all over the country, even in Harris' own state. 
 
 "I think that the fact is that this act, as much as Rep. Andy Harris tries to shy away from it, it's an attempt to politically grandstand around the issue of marijuana hear in the District of Columbia," Burnett says. "It's just an opportunity to make a statement of his personal views. Unfortunately, his personal views do not mesh well with his own constituents in Maryland, nor do they mesh with those of the residents of the District of Columbia." 

 GOP attempt to prevent pot decriminalization in D.C. accidentally legalizes pot in D.C. 
 
 By Scott Kaufman 
 
 Thursday, June 26, 2014 8:50 EDT 
 
 A poorly worded conservative attempt to prevent the District of Columbia from decriminalizing marijuana could have an unintended consequence — the legalization of marijuana in D.C. 
 
 Maryland Republican Representative Andy Harris (pictured above) led the effort to stop a law that would have made possession of marijuana a $25 fine, claiming that it was “bad policy” because it contained no drug-treatment component for minors. 
 
 “No referral for help? Not even for a 14- or 15-year-old. That’s just plain bad policy,” Harris told the House Appropriations Committee. “This is an opportunity to stop bad policy from moving forward.” 
 
 Harris sponsored a rider on a House financial services bill that would prevent the District from spending money “to enact or carry out any law, rule, or regulation to legalize or otherwise reduce penalties associated with the possession, use, or distribution” of marijuana. 
 
 By blocking the recently enacted law without replacing it with a new one, Harris’ rider effectively leaves the District with no operative law concerning the possession of small amounts of marijuana. 
 
 Malik Burnett, Policy Manager for the Drug Policy Alliance, told DCist that “this amendment — the way it’s written — would not re-criminalize or rewrite the laws around criminalization of marijuana.” 
 
 “Police issuing [$25] tickets to people who they found to have marijuana on their person wouldn’t be able to do so,” Burnett continued, which “would create a sort of de facto legalization.” 
 
 Proponents of decriminalization note that marijuana use among teenagers in D.C. doesn’t vary by race, but that nine out of ten people arrested for possession are African American. They also liken efforts like Harris’ to “colonialism.” 
 
 Democratic Representative James Moran of Virginia told The Washington Post that “it just doesn’t seem right that the Eastern Shore of Maryland can reach over into D.C. and make laws for D.C. It’s not the way this country is supposed to function.” 
 
 ["Hon. Andy Harris, M.D." from Rep. Harris' official Flickr account]
– A Maryland congressman who meant to take a stand against looser marijuana laws in Washington, DC, might end up making them even looser thanks to the legal fine print in his amendment. The Washington Post lays out the somewhat convoluted scenario surrounding Republican Andy Harris' legislation: To begin with, recall that DC's city council voted earlier this year to make possession of small amounts of pot punishable by only a $25 fine. Harris, who thinks that measure is a bad idea and wants to block it from taking effect, tacked an amendment onto a House spending bill that would forbid DC from spending any money to “enact or carry out any law, rule, or regulation to legalize or otherwise reduce penalties associated with the possession, use, or distribution" of marijuana. The problem? DC's law takes effect in July, and Murray's legislation will take much longer than that to wind through the House and Senate. Which means it could take effect after DC's law is on the books. "By blocking the recently enacted law without replacing it with a new one, Harris’ rider effectively leaves the District with no operative law concerning the possession of small amounts of marijuana," explains Raw Story. As the DCist points out, it's highly unlikely that the Harris amendment would eventually pass the House and Senate, and then escape a presidential veto. But just in case, the DC attorney general's office is looking into the possible ramifications, says the Post. “This potential unintended consequence only underscores why Congress should not meddle in local DC laws,” says a spokesperson for Mayor Vincent Gray.