Poll: Strong Majority Of DC Residents Want Marijuana Legal

Residents of the District of Columbia favor legalizing marijuana for adults, according to the findings of a Washington Post poll, released Wednesday.

Sixty-three percent of respondents said that they favor “legalizing the possession of small amounts of marijuana for personal use.”

Thirty-four percent of respondents said that they opposed legalization. However, among those respondents, nearly half (16 percent) acknowledged support for reducing the criminal penalties for marijuana offenses.

Members of the DC Committee on Public Safety this week voted unanimously in favor of legislation amending local marijuana possession penalties from a criminal misdemeanor (punishable by up to 6 months incarceration and a maximum fine of $1,000) to a civil infraction (punishable by a $25 fine for possession and a $100 fine for public consumption). The full City Council is expected to act on the measure shortly.

Any legislation approved by the DC City Council may be overridden by an act of Congress.

A 2012 analysis published by the American Civil Liberties Union of Maryland reported that DC possesses the highest percentage of marijuana possession arrests per capita in the nation.

For more information, please contact Allen St. Pierre, NORML Executive Director, or Erik Altieri, NORML Communications Director, at (202) 483-5500.

Article republished from NORML