OPINION:
When it comes to the D.C. government, the status quo isn’t the status anymore.
The city has been trending progressive for so long as activists are persuading politicians to become hellbent on being crowned queens and kings based on their check-kiting abilities.
Their No.1 issue right now is decriminalizing drugs. Not just marijuana.
The folks want to establish someplace where junkies can shoot up and swallow drugs, courtesy of taxpayer money and lookouts.
Says MarijuanaMoment.net: “DecrimPovertyDC — a coalition of advocacy groups like the Drug Policy Alliance (DPA) and Students for Sensible Drug Policy — will be imploring the District Council to take up the cause, and members have already met with the offices of each legislator and have gotten a generally positive reception.”
The coalition DecrimPovertyDC.org explains on Twitter: “@DrugPolicyOrg, @HIPS, @Defund_MPD & over 40 civil rights, justice reform, public health, & faith groups join forces to launch the #DecrimPovertyDC campaign. We are urging for @councilofdc to treat drug use like a public health issue.”
The progressives — i.e., the “independents” and Democrats who control D.C. government and its purse strings — have been awaiting this moment since Mayor Muriel Bowser anointed the nation’s capital Black Lives Matter.
It’s not that the District hadn’t been anointed by earlier Democratic cliques. Indeed, D.C. was nicknamed “Chocolate City” long before it was called “Murder Capital.” Fortunately, however, local and federal political realities beat NBC to law and order.
Now, the new progressives are up to their usual games, saying Blacks, Browns and poor people are being disproportionately harmed by law and order, police doing their jobs, and substance abusers abusing drugs.
The District doles out free needles for opioid junkies to overdose and free naloxone when they do.
Moreover, the city would have to establish an independent commission to determine limits of drug possession and restrictions of fines.
In other words, there would be forgiveness reprograms on opioids, marijuana and other illicit substances.
This is no way to run City Hall, which has some powers thanks to limited home rule.
If the progressives want to ruin the capital, tell them to hit the halls of Congress and stand before the U.S. Supreme Court, not a coalition of groups supporting prostitution and the black market.
It’s time to revamp D.C. government again, as Democrats and Republicans did during the Clinton administration.
Thank heaven primary elections are in June.
• Deborah Simmons can be contacted at dsimmons@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.