Members of D.C. Marijuana Justice, a pro-cannabis activist group, held a “smoke-in” yesterday at the Capitol that led to the arrest of at least four supporters, including DCMJ co-founder Adam Eidinger, the Associated Press reports. Eidinger was also one of eight arrested during last week’s Apr. 20 joint giveaway at the Capitol, in which only two were charged.
During the smoke-in, Ricardo Harven had a message for the more than 20 Capitol Police who came to crackdown on the event.
“Congress approved our federal law, it is federally legal [to possess] marijuana in the District of Columbia,” Harvin said, “So remember that as you come in to arrest us.”
Nick Schiller, co-founder of DCMJ, called the arrests “politically motivated” insisting that the protest activities were perfectly legal due to Washington D.C.’s decriminalization laws. Last week’s protest activities included giving cannabis to adults 21-and-older with Congressional identification.
Capitol Police Spokesperson Eva Malecki indicated that the four people charged with possession, two women and two men, were violating federal law. Last week’s protest, which called on lawmakers to remove cannabis from its Schedule 1 federal designation, actually highlighted the disparity between national and state cannabis laws.
Eidinger said the activists are urging lawmakers to reject an amendment introduced by Republican Rep. Andy Harris that would prevent the city from passing local laws to legalize cannabis regulation and sales.
“One of the reasons we are fighting so hard to overturn this Andy Harris rider is because there’s unfinished business here in the nation’s capital,” Eidinger said in a Washington Post report. “Basically, we have legalization without commercialization.”