Marijuana Laws in Washington D.C. Set to Change, City Leaders Push for Decriminalization

Washington D.C. is on its way to pot legislation change, 15 years after voters backed the legalization of medical marijuana.

The D.C. Council is preparing to pass a bill that decriminalizes holding small amounts of weed, according to the Associated Press. There is a high chance that the draft will make it past the initial stamps of approval and become law - Democratic Mayor Vincent Gray has said that he is in favor of the bill. Some think the legislation could go into effect as soon as January.

Supporters are urging the city to take an extra step and legalize marijuana across the board, as Colorado and Washington State did in the past two years. If the council doesn't comply, some voters are considering submitting an initiative to the ballot.

There are currently three strictly regulated dispensaries in the D.C. area - last year, there were none.

City officials have only recently begun discussing pot legislation changes, partly due to the fact that Congress will rule on the details of legalities, and some fear the federal government won't be interested in pursuing passing the law.

"What the states do would not matter if there were serious interest in the subject," Democratic Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton told AP. "I don't think there's a serious interest in the subject."

Local leaders also have revved up the marijuana decriminalization conversation lately because of two studies published earlier this year that revealed serious racial disparities in marijuana-related arrests throughout D.C. According to the American Civil Liberties Union, Blacks were eight times more likely to be arrested than whites based on findings collected in 2010. 91 percent of people locked up that year were black. AP reports that around half of the 632,000 residents of D.C. are black.

"We have hundreds of young black men, black boys, being locked up, for simple possession of a couple bags of marijuana," Marion Barry, a Democratic Councilmember who sponsors the bill, said. "We don't want to be proud of the wrong kind of thing here. We need to stop that kind of injustice from happening."