D.C. Council Votes To Ease Marijuana Laws

The D.C. council voted to make marijuana laws among the most lenient in the country.

While the move puts Washington, D.C.’s laws on marijuana among the most lenient in the nation, the bill’s proponents did not get everything they wanted. Originally, advocates had lobbied for a bill that would have significantly loosened laws for public consumption of marijuana and lessened penalties even more.

But when the council met last month to first consider the proposal, an amendment was added that brought the bill closer to its final form.

The approved legislation moves the possession of an ounce or less or marijuana from a criminal offense – which came with six months in jail or a $1,000 fine – to a civil offense that comes with a fine of $25.

And while the bill still makes public consumption of marijuana a misdemeanor offense, it lowers the penalty for smoking marijuana in public from a $1,000 fine or six months in jail to a $500 fine or 60 days in jail.

By: Cheston Catalano

Cheston Catalano is a Kentucky-based journalist whose work has been featured in the Chattanooga Times Free Press and the Clarksville Leaf Chronicle. He is a long-time contributor to Liberaland.