GOP Congressman Acknowledges ‘Trace Of Racism’ In Marijuana Laws—But Says Advocates Have Gone Too Far With Criminal Justice Reform

A GOP congressman says that, while he supports overturning certain criminal
justice reform policies enacted by local officials in the nation’s capital,
he does acknowledge there’s “a trace of racism” in marijuana enforcement.
But, he said, advocates have gone too far in their pursuit of scaling back
harsh sentencing laws.

During a hearing before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee
last week, Chairman James Comer (R-KY) addressed Washington, D.C. officials
and lawmakers about congressional efforts his panel is leading to overhaul
multiple local laws. One of the congressional bills would restrict the
District’s ability to enact sentencing reform.

“Now, I supported criminal justice reform back when it first became a thing
in Kentucky. So did another Republican, [Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY)] at that
time,” Comer said. “It dealt with incarcerating young people because of
possession of marijuana.”

“I believed then, and I still believe, that there was an excessive penalty
to pay for what is now legal in most states: Marijuana. And it did appear
to me, by the numbers, to have a trace of racism in it,” he said, adding
that Black youth appeared to be disproportionately impacted by
criminalization.

“But over time, the activists continued to expand that and expand that to
no bail, cashless bail, to raise the age of of what is a juvenile and to
treat juveniles to where they got a slap on the wrist, even if they
committed a serious crime. And that’s why we stepped in,” the congressman
said.

This comes weeks after Comer’s committee approved a bill to repeal a D.C.
law expanding expungements for marijuana possession.

A Democratic congresswoman subsequently accused Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL)
of hypocrisy for sponsoring the legislation when his own charge for
marijuana possession in his youth was dismissed under a court’s discretion.

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 Comer 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.

The post GOP Congressman Acknowledges ‘Trace Of Racism’ In Marijuana
Laws—But Says Advocates Have Gone Too Far With Criminal Justice Reform
appeared first on Marijuana Moment.