[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 160 (2014), Part 5]
[House]
[Page 6643]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                     DECRIMINALIZING MARIJUANA LAWS

  (Ms. NORTON asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. NORTON. Mr. Speaker, 18 States and the District of Columbia have 
rapidly decriminalized marijuana laws, making them subject only to 
fines. They did so for various reasons. None of those reasons were more 
solid or important than the Council's decision to decriminalize D.C.'s 
marijuana laws.
  African Americans in the District of Columbia and Whites use 
marijuana at the same rate, but Blacks have an arrest record for 
possession eight times that of Whites. That's discrimination.
  It is the same thing when Chairman John Mica of the Government 
Operations Subcommittee of the Oversight and Government Reform 
Committee decides to hold a hearing on D.C.'s marijuana 
decriminalization law but on no others. Two prior hearings have looked 
at marijuana decriminalization. None has called local public officials.
  Be on notice. The District of Columbia insists that it not be treated 
any differently from the 18 States that have decriminalized marijuana 
and the States who have legalized it.

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