This is the Cato Daily Podcast for Friday, February 7th, 2014.

I'm Caleb Brown.

The last time marijuana was a big issue in the District of Columbia,

the results of a public vote were quashed for a decade.

That's because Congress rules D.C.

But things have changed.

Now that the city council seems to be moving forward with decriminalization of marijuana, Congress might just let it happen.

Alan St. Pierre is executive director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana

Laws.

We spoke yesterday. The DC Council has effectively voted to

decriminalize marijuana. There's really no question about how that is going to go

when they vote on it again. Mayor Gray, Vincent Gray has said that he will sign it into law,

but there's also Congress that may or may not get involved here.

What are the mechanics of what has to happen? Well of course as you

indicate DC is its own unique creature if it was a state this would be a

done deal. So with Congress having complete oversight over the district's budget and autonomy, if the Congress

in its oversight capacity wants to interfere with this implementation of the law, there's no doubt it can do so.

So we're just thankful that in the last four years, whether it's been Democrats or Republicans

running the House, they've been in favor of

allowing the DC government to move forward with what had been historically

a prohibited legislative area to get into.

From 1998 through 2008, a 10-year period,

...