The marijuana legalization initiative on Washington. D.C.’s November ballot appears poised to pass — with support at 65 percent, according to a recent poll — but that doesn’t necessarily mean adults in the nation’s capital will be allowed to legally possess and grow marijuana in accordance with the measure’s provisions any time soon.

Aside from the fact that Congress could overturn the initiative, some members of the D.C. Council are openly talking about delaying its implementation.

As at-large Councilman David Grosso told the Washington Post, “I don’t want uncertainty to be out there in the streets and in the market, and the initiative as it is written doesn’t give us the certainty we need,” referring to the fact that Initiative 71 only legalizes possession of up to two ounces and allows residents to grow six plants at home, while leaving questions about sales unaddressed. (Voter initiatives in D.C. cannot mandate the expenditure of city funds, which setting up a system of regulated sales would require.)

“It may be easier to just delay the whole thing while we come up with the regulatory framework,” Grosso said.

Legalization advocates in D.C. say that getting the Council to enact legal and taxed sales following the passage of the initiative has always been part of the plan. But delaying the legalization of possession and personal cultivation until those details can be worked out isn’t what they had in mind.

Adam Eidinger, who led the effort to put the measure on the ballot says there’s no need to wait, pointing to how Colorado implemented the legalization of possession and growing about a month after voters there approved Amendment 64, while it took more than a year for legal sales to get off the ground. “They stopped arresting people, they let people …read more

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Source:: D.C. Voter Approval Won’t Ensure Speedy Implementation