The Washington Peace Letter is published monthly for the social justice community of the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. It's purpose is to support local, national and international struggles against oppression. It seeks to present a radical analysis of current events, covering information not readily available in the corporate media.

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On November 3, in Oregon, Alaska, Washington state, Nevada, Arizona, and the District of Columbia, voters decided on initiatives to legalize marijuana for medical uses. The voters in Oregon, Alaska, Washington state, Nevada, and Arizona passed the citizen initiatives and will see the laws of their states changed to allow legal use of medicinal marijuana. It’s a good bet that the voters in D.C. passed the local medical marijuana initiative, too, but only in D.C. did Congress step in and declare that local officials could not spend the city’s money to certify the results of the election, and allow seriously ill patients to find relief under a Doctor’s supervision through the use of marijuana.

And to add insult to injury, on election day, the D.C. Board of Elections and Ethics decided that the Congressional intervention in local democracy meant they could not even release the results of the vote on Initiative 59.

Once again the residents of the District of Columbia find themselves treated like second class citizens, not allowed the same rights that residents of all 50 states enjoy. It seems that every election year, Congress finds another excuse to turn D.C.’s electoral process into a de-mock-racy, by intervening to overturn election results. Four years ago when the voters decided to return Marion Barry to the mayor’s office, the Congress promptly imposed the Control Board on the city and stripped the mayoralty of most of its power. Two years ago, the day after voters chose who should represent them on the D.C. Board of Education, Congress’s tool, the Control Board, stripped the School Board of most of its powers and imposed an unaccountable Board of Trustees to oversee the system.

Now, the Congress has directly intervened to stop a vote on a citizen’s initiative. What will be their next act of tyranny?

Getting the medical marijuana initiative on the ballot was a long hard fight, led by Steve Michael (until his death from AIDS in May) and Wayne Turner of ACT UP Washington. (See Peace Letter, October 1998.) It took months of signature gathering and a protracted legal battle with the Board of Elections, which used every excuse to try to keep the initiative off the ballot. In the end, the will of the people of D.C., more than 30,000 of whom signed petitions for Initiative 59, prevailed. But then Congress stepped in.

On October 30, the American Civil Liberties Union of the National Capital Area filed suit in federal court to prevent Congress from blocking certification of the results of Initiative 59. On November 9, U.S. District Court Judge Richard Roberts ruled against requiring the Board of Elections to release the results of the voting. The judge set a date of December 18 for deciding on the case.

Meanwhile, most of D.C.’s current and newly elected officials have been silent on this latest Congressional assault on D.C.’s democratic rights. The lack of action on the part of D.C.’s supposed leaders does not bode well for the future of self-determination for D.C. Elected officials seem to have become all too comfortable with accepting Congressional interference.

This abridgement of democracy in D.C. should set off alarms around the country as well. This act of tyranny was carried out in the name of the war on drugs. If it is allowed to stand, it may well embolden Congress and other governmental powers to violate other civil and political rights, as they capitalize on anti-drug hysteria.

If the rights of D.C. voters can be overturned, who will be next?

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