Democratic Congresswoman Calls Out GOP Colleague’s Marijuana Arrest As He Works To Upend D.C. Sentencing Reform Law

A Democratic congresswoman is accusing a Republican lawmaker of hypocrisy
for sponsoring legislation to upend a Washington, D.C. sentencing reform
law when his own charge for marijuana possession in his youth was dismissed
under a court’s discretion.

The House of Representatives on Tuesday took up bills targeting D.C.
policies that recently advanced through the Oversight and Government
Accountability. That included a measure titled the DC Crimes Act from Rep.
Byron Donalds (R-FL), which would restrict the District’s ability to enact
sentencing reform.

Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) said the GOP congressman’s push for the
legislation represents a double standard given his own personal history
with cannabis criminalization as a young adult and whose case was
dismissed, enabling him to reach Capitol Hill.

“As a young man, he went through pretrial diversion for misdemeanor
marijuana possession,” Crockett said. “As an adult yet younger than 24, he
was placed on felony robbery charges, which ultimately, too, were expunged.”

“As I sat and listened to the beginning of this debate, my heart simply
broke. And many people know me for being able to do alliterations, and all
I could think about was ‘amnesia allows adolescent accountability
avoidance, agility from across the aisle,'” she said.

“Work with me for a second: Imagine being a young man born to Jamaican and
Panamanian parents who messed up not once but twice. Imagine standing in
front of a judge with your life hanging in balance, and instead of prison
you’re given a promise of mercy. Your record is wiped clean, and you’ve got
a second chance at life. Imagine turning that into a promotion and you go
to college and get a job and even become a member of Congress. That’s what
redemption looks like.”

“That’s what America is supposed to be about. And that is exactly the story
of the next wannabe governor from Florida, as a young man, he went
through,” the congresswoman said, referring to Donalds.

Donalds—who’s DC Crimes Act passed the full House in a 240-179 vote–was
arrested for alleged cannabis distribution in 1997, but the charges were
dropped in 2000 as part of a pre-trial diversion program.

“He was given a third chance, and now he’s the face of a bill that would
not afford young people in Washington, D.C. the same opportunities afforded
to him,” Crockett said. “Let me be real: If he had grown up under Donald
Trump’s America or under the very D.C. crime bill he’s pushing today, he
wouldn’t be standing here as a member of Congress. He’d still be living
with the weight of those charges.”

“Let’s call this what it is: Opportunities for me but not for thee. He’s
climbed the ladder of redemption and now is yanking it up from the D.C.
youth. Most of us were taught to lift as you climb. But clearly, some is
have forgotten to lift as they climb—and now they are committed to telling
the next generation to pull themselves up by their bootstraps,” she said.
“I will not sit quiet while a man who was saved by grace turns around and
tries to snatch grace away from others.”

Despite his own history with cannabis criminalization, Donalds also voiced
opposition to a proposal to legalize marijuana in his state of Florida
during last year’s election. However, his overall record is somewhat mixed.

For example, he’s voted in favor of marijuana banking legislation, as well
as a bill to reduce restrictions on carrying out cannabis research. The
congressman is also a cosponsor of a bill to protect gun rights for medical
cannabis patients this session, and he’s twice cosponsored legislation to
automatically seal criminal records for people convicted of non-violent
marijuana offenses.

While he experienced a cannabis arrest himself, Donalds also voted against
an amendment to prevent people from being denied security clearances over
prior marijuana use—even though he’s able to receive classified briefings
as a member of Congress regardless of his own history with cannabis. The
congressman additionally voted against a bill to legalize marijuana in 2022.

Meanwhile, the House is also teed up to consider another bill to repeal a
D.C. law expanding expungements for marijuana possession, which cleared
committee last week.

The cannabis expungement policy is part of the Second Chance Amendment Act,
a District law passed in 2022 that took effect the next year.

Under the law, the District’s judiciary was mandated to automatically
expunge marijuana possession records for offenses that took place before
D.C. enacted a limited cannabis legalization law in 2014.

Advocates have already been frustrated with congressional interference with
the District’s cannabis laws—particularly the annual renewal of an
appropriations rider from Rep. Andy Harris (R-MD) barring D.C. from using
its local tax dollars to implement a system of regulated recreational
marijuana sales.

While Rep. James Comer (R-KY) oversaw the repeal bill vote, he previously
signaled that he’d be open to revisiting the rider. Asked about the
possibility of lifting restrictions on D.C. legal cannabis sales, he said
in late 2023 “if that’s what Washington D.C. wants, yeah.”

Earlier this month, the House Appropriations Committee again advanced the
underlying spending bill with the rider kept intact.


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Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) has criticized appropriators for putting
forward a bill that restricts the District’s autonomy in a number of ways,
including the rider to “prohibit the use of funds to commercialize
recreational marijuana.”

“I am outraged at the number and scope of anti-D.C. home rule riders in the
bill released today,” Norton said when the measure cleared subcommittee in
July.

The congresswoman said in May that she would again again push her
colleagues to join her in an effort to remove the cannabis language.

“As Congress works on the fiscal year 2026 appropriation bill, I will
continue to fight to remove this rider,” she said, while referencing a
statement from the White House that called the District’s move to enact
local marijuana reform an example of a “failed” policy that “opened the
door to disorder.”

President Donald Trump’s budget request that he released in June similarly
contained the Harris rider preventing marijuana sales in D.C., despite
voters in the jurisdiction voting to approve legalization in 2014. Former
President Joe Biden also repeatedly requested the continuation of the D.C.
cannabis rider in budget proposals during his time in office.

While D.C. hasn’t been able to use its local funds to implement a system of
regulated recreational cannabis sales over the last decade, local officials
have taken steps to expand the city’s existing medical marijuana program as
a workaround.

*Photo courtesy of Philip Steffan.*

The post Democratic Congresswoman Calls Out GOP Colleague’s Marijuana
Arrest As He Works To Upend D.C. Sentencing Reform Law appeared first on Marijuana
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