DISTRICT TOUGHENS MARIJUANA PENALTIES

The D.C. Council voted yesterday to toughen the maximum penalties for the
distribution of marijuana, making it a felony subject to a five-year prison
term rather than a one-year misdemeanor.

U.S. Attorney Wilma A. Lewis said she hopes the tougher penalties will help
the city battle its open-air drug markets and make it less of a haven for
marijuana peddlers, who cater to many suburban customers.

"You go out in the community and you hear residents speaking of cars going
through the neighborhood with Virginia and Maryland tags," she said. "The
fact of the matter is, Maryland and Virginia laws were much stricter, and
D.C. was the only jurisdiction that had no felony conviction for
trafficking marijuana."

The 11 to 2 vote came after council member Phil Mendelson (D-At Large)
raised concerns that the measure could send someone to prison for up to
five years for giving a marijuana cigarette to an ailing friend for
medicinal purposes. Council member Sandy Allen (D-Ward 8) also opposed the
bill.

Mendelson tried to amend the bill, but the effort was defeated, with some
council members saying they didn't want to send a message that possessing
any amount of marijuana is okay.

"If you happen to live in a community like mine, there is extreme hostility
[toward] any sense of softening the laws," said council member Kevin P.
Chavous (D-Ward 7).

Under the measure, possession of any amount of marijuana remains a
misdemeanor punishable by up to six months in jail. However, the penalty
for distribution or intent to distribute more than half a pound carries a
penalty of up to five years in prison. Mayor Anthony A. Williams is
expected to sign the legislation.

The penalty for first-time offenders selling half a pound or less carries a
maximum sentence of six months. But those convicted a second time can be
sentenced to up to five years, regardless of the amount distributed,
Mendelson said.

In Virginia, by contrast, possession of marijuana with intent to distribute
any amount from a half-ounce to five pounds is punishable by up to 10 years
in prison.

Mendelson objected to the D.C. measure, using props to illustrate his
point. He stacked before him 14 plastic containers of catnip, saying they
represented half a pound of marijuana. He said someone caught for the first
time with such an amount would be charged with a misdemeanor.

Then he held up a mock marijuana cigarette, filled with catnip. He said a
person with a conviction who passed that cigarette on to a friend--possibly
for medicinal purposes--could be charged with a felony punishable by five
years in prison.

Mendelson said Lewis assured him that her office wouldn't charge someone
with a felony in such instances. But he said he was concerned that future
prosecutors might not share her view.

Eric H. Holder Jr. began pushing for tougher marijuana penalties in the
District in 1996, when he was the U.S. attorney. Lewis resumed the campaign
in April 1999 and expressed frustration in battling the city's burgeoning
marijuana sales and the increasing violence that accompanied them.

The bill was opposed by supporters of the medicinal use of marijuana and,
as council member Charlene Drew Jarvis (D-Ward 4) once put it, "yuppies and
buppies," among others.

Wayne Turner, a backer of the District's medical marijuana
initiative--which voters approved in November 1998 but Congress has
blocked--criticized yesterday's vote.

"I guess my biggest fear is that patients who may be using medical
marijuana may now be turned into felons," Turner said. "I just wish the
council members were more interested in doing the bidding of the voters of
Washington, D.C., rather than the U.S. attorney's office."