“This is astounding to me, to go and say that somehow this is a problem that is due to white guys,” he said.
MARYLAND REPRESENTATIVE ANDY HARRIS HOW TO
officials decide whom to arrest and how to prosecute them and that he considers decriminalization a step toward full legalization. has.”Īdvocates of decriminalization call it an act of social justice, pointing out that African Americans account for nine of 10 possession arrests in the District even though studies have shown that blacks and whites use the drug at about the same rates. We don’t have the kind of crime problem that D.C. “We don’t have the kind of drug-abuse problem that D.C. residents “love coming to the Eastern Shore,” he said on July 3 on WTTG (Channel 5). Vote tried to pressure Harris by calling for a boycott of beaches in his district, including Ocean City, Harris shrugged off the threat.ĭ.C. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D), the District’s nonvoting representative in Congress.
MARYLAND REPRESENTATIVE ANDY HARRIS FREE
“If he wants a free ride - a free propaganda ride, a free messaging ride - on the backs of African American youth in my city, well, he’s going to hear from me,” said Del. leaders, who have long chafed at congressional interference in what they say should be local affairs. “I saw personally, firsthand, what drug use and drug abuse is doing to an underprivileged population,” Harris said of his time practicing in Baltimore. A white lab coat hangs in his office waiting room. Harris frequently mentions that he is a physician, an anesthesiologist who specializes in obstetrics and practiced at Johns Hopkins University. In Maryland, where lawmakers also recently approved decriminalization, those younger than 21 have to appear in court. Council is that it does not treat teenagers caught with marijuana significantly differently from adults and does not refer them for treatment. Harris said his chief concern about the law passed by the D.C. (Harris also attached a rider to the budget that could limit access to abortion.) The Senate would have to agree to the rider, which it is not expected to do. The amendment, called a rider, was approved by the committee and attached to a federal spending measure that is expected to go to the full House for a vote this month. Now he wants to chair the conservative Republican Study Committee, which could be a launching pad to higher leadership positions.Īppropriations has some power over the District’s budget, which meant that Harris could introduce an amendment in late June that would essentially bar the city from using taxpayer funds to decriminalize the possession of small amounts of pot. He says he is uninterested in political maneuvering - although his publicity-generating stances have helped him climb the political ranks.Įlected to Congress in 2010, he made it onto the powerful Appropriations Committee last year. Harris, 57, says he enjoys collaborating with Democrats, especially on health policy - although he fiercely opposes the full Affordable Care Act. But Harris’s friends and allies describe him as a dedicated father and Catholic with a fierce sense of moral obligation who is often unfairly typecast as an unreasonable tea partyer. His style is acerbic, his critics are many. “All that I wanted to do was highlight this issue and then get it fixed.” “In modern government, policy follows the money sometimes,” Harris said of the threat, which prompted the university to address the public viewing of porn. He said he considers pornography “poison.” He equates mandated insurance coverage of contraception with the burning of churches and medical use of marijuana with telling patients to chew on mold instead of taking penicillin.Īs a state senator in 2008, Harris tried to withhold funding to the University of Maryland because students planned to screen an X-rated film. Andy Harris was one of the last true believers, continuing to vote against the federal budget even at the risk of prolonging a government shutdown. The Maryland congressman challenging the District’s new marijuana-decriminalization law is no stranger to unpopular stances, having survived a contentious 12 years as a Republican lawmaker in the state’s Democratic-dominated General Assembly.ĭuring last fall’s budget standoff, Rep.
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