One congressman. One appropriations rider. Over a decade of blocked democracy.
Rep. Andy Harris (MD-01) has a peculiar hobby: controlling what Washington, D.C. can do with its own local tax dollars — especially when it comes to marijuana.
THE “HARRIS RIDER”
According to The Baltimore Sun, since 2014 — the same year D.C. voters overwhelmingly approved legal recreational cannabis — an appropriations provision known as the “Harris rider” has barred the District of Columbia from using its own local funds to implement a regulated adult-use marijuana market.
Harris inserted it. Harris kept it. It has appeared in every congressional session since.
D.C. voters said yes. Harris said no. And for over ten years, Harris’s no has won.
THE STAGGERING HYPOCRISY
Here’s where it gets rich.
The very same year Harris was blocking D.C. from decriminalizing marijuana, Maryland — Harris’s own state — decriminalized it.
Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton said it plainly: “the hypocrisy of Representative Andy Harris’ amendment that would block the District of Columbia from decriminalizing marijuana could not be clearer” given that Maryland’s own decriminalization law took effect the same day.
Harris’s amendment imposed a $25 fine as his preferred punishment — a fraction of Maryland’s own $100 fine. He called D.C.’s law “bad policy.”
Maryland’s law: fine. D.C.’s law: bad policy.
WHAT THIS MEANS
One man. Overriding an entire city’s democratic vote. For over a decade.
And he’s not budging.