US

DC’s Prince of Pot Gives Up Weed-Strike-For-A-Living-Wage After One Week

Daily Caller News Foundation logo
Font Size:

Adam Eidinger is perhaps best known as the man who successfully petitioned to get marijuana legalized in Washington, D.C., but he also fights for things like D.C. statehood and a $15 minimum wage.

In December, Eidinger pledged a New Years resolution of sorts to stop smoking marijuana until the city instituted a “living wage.” Like most New Years resolutions, though, It didn’t last long.

Eidinger tweeted extensively about his plan to give up pot to fight for workers rights, even asking several city council members to smoke weed with him to celebrate New Years Eve.

Following his New Years celebration, the struggle became real for Eidinger, who apparently had trouble with the pledge from the beginning.

Now, after just one week in 2016, Eidinger told the Washington City Paper he is more or less giving up the strike because his chronic body pain became too much for him to handle.

“I’ll be honest: My pot strike at times is more like a diet. I had the full intention of giving it up completely through the election to draw attention to the living-wage initiative. But I am no longer doing it socially,” he told the paper.

Eidinger has been a huge proponent of a plan to raise the minimum wage in D.C. to $15 an hour by 2020.

In July, local labor groups successfully launched a campaign to place an initiative on the 2016 ballot that would raise the minimum wage to $15 per-hour.

If the activists supporting the initiative can collect around 25,000 signatures — or 5 percent of the D.C. population — on a petition before November 2016, the city’s residents will vote whether they want the higher minimum wage.

The move came just weeks after the city raised its minimum wage to $10.50– higher than any state in the nation. The minimum-wage hike was part of a three-year initiative approved by the D.C. council in 2013 that will see it climb again in 2016 to $11.50.

In October, business owners sued the district to stop the planned wage hike, saying the minimum wage would unfairly discriminate against certain businesses.

Follow Josh on Twitter

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.