At a recent legislative meeting by the Washington, D.C.’s Council of the District of Columbia meeting on April 2, the council unanimously approved the “Medical Cannabis Patient Card Extension 4/20 Medical Cannabis Sales Tax Holiday Week Emergency Amendment Act of 2024,” which addresses three primary changes by amending the DC Official Code Title 7.

First, it makes medical cannabis patient and caregiver cards now valid for six years (previously it lasted only two years before requiring renewal).

Second, it provides the Alcoholic Beverage and Cannabis Administration (ABCA) with “emergency closure authority.” This gives the agency power to close unlicensed cannabis retailers and seize “any” cannabis products if it poses a threat to the safety of the public.

And finally, it extends the currently existing medical cannabis tax holiday (April 20-24, which was approved in 2022) to now last between April 15 to April 28.

According to councilmember Kenyan McDuffie, the measure is essential to the success of the district’s medical cannabis industry. “The popular tax holiday is critical to the district’s effort to attract qualifying patients back to the legal market as well as sustainable and viable medical cannabis program,” McDuffie said.

Prior to the measure being passed, Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser wrote about pending legislation being considered by the council, urging them to consider the tax holiday extension. “This change will improve patient access to the program and would make the District consistent with Maryland’s six-year medical cannabis patient card,” Bowser wrote. “The bill further supports our local industry by implementing a Medical Cannabis Tax Holiday, which temporarily suspends sales taxes for purchases made at licensed medical cannabis dispensaries.”

She added that approving the ABCA’s power to shut down illegal cannabis stores is crucial. “Most importantly, this measure explicitly authorizes the Alcoholic Beverage and Cannabis Administration to close unlicensed cannabis retail stores,” Bowser explained. “As we saw in the recent tragic murder inside an unlicensed cannabis dispensary, these unlicensed stores pose a direct threat to our communities and we must take strong action to shut down bad actors.”

The murder that Bowser referenced includes the death of local rapper, Phil Da Phuture, who was working at a dispensary when a robbery took place. Although he cooperated with the robbers, he was shot, and later died at a nearby hospital.

During the meeting, council members said that there are approximately 200 illegal dispensaries operating through Washington, D.C., and only 70 of which have applied for a license.

The council also chose to veto a measure that would have changed zoning rules for placing dispensaries near schools, and discussed another measure that seeks to revisit the authority of the ABCA.

Currently, dispensaries must be located at least 300 feet away from schools or recreational areas that children frequent, although medical cannabis dispensaries are exempt from this if they stand in an industrial or commercial area. “This emergency legislation would remove that exception and prohibit all medical cannabis retailers from locating within 300 feet of schools or recreation centers,” said councilmember Brooke Pinto, who added that if passed, it would “…allow affected applicants to change their locations without negatively impacting their locations.”

Only two dispensaries would be affected by the measure if it was passed, but McDuffie explained his disapproval. “It is tough work to find a location,” McDuffie said, adding that qualifying real estate in Washington, D.C. “…is not readily accessible when it comes to what they are required to use and the restrictions we put on them in terms of where they can locate. So I can’t support this.”

Washington D.C. passed an initiative to remove criminal penalties for minor cannabis offenses in July 2014, which was followed by the passage of an initiative to tax and regulate adult-use cannabis in November 2014, which became effective in February 2015.

Earlier this year in January, the council passed emergency legislation that cracks down on illegal dispensaries relying on the “gifting” loophole to make sales. “This gap in the law, if not fixed, will render the onramp meaningless, allow unlicensed establishments that do not apply to keep on operating, and significantly harm the good actors that have applied,” said councilmember Charles Allen in a January council meeting.

The ABCA can now “issue warnings, fines, and cease-and-desist orders to unlicensed businesses that have not applied to the medical cannabis program,” according to a report from the DCist.

Unfortunately, a local illegal dispensary called Kaliiva which had already started its transition from operating illegally to applying for a legal license recently raided earlier last month. Kaliiva was one of the first illegal dispensaries to receive a placard, according to The Outlaw Report, which is the first step toward receiving a license. The DC Metropolitan Police Department (MPD), as well as the Department of Health, and the DC Licensing and Consumer Protection, have the power to conduct inspections on their own accord, despite what the ABCA has established.

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The measure that was approved by the Council of the District of Columbia late last year mandates an “automatic sealing for non-dangerous, non-convictions as well as shorten the waiting periods before a person is eligible to seal their record,” and “would also expand the eligibility of who can seal their record.” The bill was signed by Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser in January, but its enactment was delayed due to an arcane part of lawmaking in our nation’s capital. 

Laws in D.C. are subject to congressional oversight and approval––a stipulation that has prevented the district from implementing legal marijuana sales, despite the fact that voters there legalized cannabis back in 2014.

After Bowser signed the cannabis expungement measure in January, the bill was transmitted to Congress. As NORML explained, all “legislation must undergo a 30-day Congressional review prior to becoming law,” and absent a Congressional intervention, the bill will then become law.

That moment is now––or rather, on March 10, when the law officially took effect.

NORML has more on the new law:

“The Act provides for the automatic review and expungement of any convictions or citations specific to marijuana-related offenses that have subsequently been decriminalized or legalized in the District of Columbia, as well as any ‘records related only to simple possession for any quantity of marijuana in violation of D.C. Code § 48-904.01(d)(1) before February 15, 2015.’ It requires all cannabis-specific expungements to be processed by the courts by January 1, 2025.”

Paul Armentano, the deputy director of NORML, hailed the new law.

“Thousands of DC residents unduly carry the burden and stigma of a past conviction for behavior that District lawmakers, most Americans, and a growing number of states, no longer consider to be a crime,” Armenato said. “Our sense of justice and our principles of fairness demand that the courts move swiftly to right the past wrongs of cannabis prohibition and criminalization.”

In 2021, it appeared that legal cannabis sales might finally be coming to Washington, D.C.

That’s because Senate Democrats at the time introduced a draft of an appropriations bill that did not include the so-called “Harris Rider,” a budget rider named for Republican Congressman Andy Harris of Maryland that had appeared in every such bill since 2014.

The Harris Rider has precluded Washington, D.C. from engaging in legal commercial marijuana sales. 

At the time, Bowser celebrated the rider’s apparent exclusion from the proposed bill.

“The Senate appropriations bill is a critical step in recognizing that in a democracy, D.C. residents should be governed by D.C. values,” Bowser’s office said at the time. “As we continue on the path to D.C. statehood, I want to thank Senate Appropriations Committee Chair, Senator Patrick Leahy, our good friend and Subcommittee Chair, Senator Chris Van Hollen, and, of course, our champion on the Hill, Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton, for recognizing and advancing the will of D.C. voters. We urge Congress to pass a final spending bill that similarly removes all anti-Home Rule riders, allowing D.C. to spend our local funds as we see fit.”

Activist groups pressured Democrats in Congress to hold firm and ditch the Harris Rider.

“In one hand, Congress continues to make strides in advancing federal marijuana reform grounded in racial justice, while simultaneously being responsible for prohibiting the very jurisdiction that led the country in legalizing marijuana through this lens from being able to regulate it. This conflict and contradiction must end now,” Queen Adesuyi, Senior National Policy Manager for the Drug Policy Alliance, said in a statement last year.

But it was not to be.

The appropriations bill that ultimately emerged last year included the Harris Rider.

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Planned inspections of Washington, D.C.’s unlicensed cannabis retailers have reportedly been delayed.

The inspections, which were announced last month by the city’s Alcoholic Beverage Regulation Administration, were designed to ensure the businesses “abide by the regulatory requirements of DC Health, the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs (DCRA), the District of Columbia Fire and Emergency Medical Services Department (FEMS), and the Office of Tax and Revenue (OTR).”The inspections, which were announced last month by the city’s Alcoholic Beverage Regulation Administration, were designed to ensure the businesses “abide by the regulatory requirements of DC Health, the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs (DCRA), the District of Columbia Fire and Emergency Medical Services Department (FEMS), and the Office of Tax and Revenue (OTR).”

But the DCist reports that officials are “delaying plans to inspect the city’s many marijuana gifting stores this week, deepening the confusion around the maybe-legal, maybe-not industry that continues to grow across the city.”

The outlet, citing a source familiar with the situation, said that law enforcement officials “had raised concerns about the protocol for inspecting the stores, and what would happen if inspectors found weapons or other illicit items.”

The inspections were scheduled to begin after Labor Day.

Voters in the nation’s capital approved a ballot initiative in 2014 that legalized recreational cannabis, but due to an arcane provision that gives Congress oversight over its laws, the sale of pot remains prohibited in D.C.

Since that vote eight years ago, every appropriations bill passed by Congress has contained what is known as the “Harris Rider,” named Maryland Republican Congressman Andy Harris, which prohibits Washington, D.C. from commercializing recreational cannabis.

Democrats on Capitol Hill flirted with the idea of removing the Harris Rider from the latest spending bill when it released a draft of the legislation last fall.

But by March of this year, the final version of the bill included the Harris Rider, much to the chagrin of cannabis reform advocates in D.C.

“Congress needs to step out of this,” Phil Mendelson, the chair of the D.C. City Council, said in March. “It perpetuates the current lawless situation in the city.”

That has not stopped a number of intrepid business owners in Washington, D.C. from finding a workaround to the ban.

The city has a number of illicit retailers that sell cannabis through the practice of “gifting,” through which a customer pays for an item such as a t-shirt, and is in turn provided with a “gift” of cannabis.

Gifting has become so ubiquitous––and popular––in Washington, D.C. that some policymakers and industry officials have expressed concerns that it is chewing into the margins of legal, medical cannabis operations, with patients opting to go the illicit route instead of filling out tedious paperwork.

“The medical side are struggling on the brink of existence, while the illegal side has only grown more rapidly,” Mendelson said in April.

That month, the D.C. Council rejected a proposal that would have imposed harsh fines on “gifting” retailers.

A couple months later, the council passed a different measure that was also proposed with an eye toward buttressing the city’s beleaguered medical cannabis retailers. Under the new ordinance, which was signed into law by Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser in July, medical cannabis patients in the city are now allowed to “self-certify” their qualifications for the treatment, which will enable them to bypass a doctor.

“We have made it a priority over the years to build a more patient-centric medical marijuana program and this legislation builds on those efforts,” Bowser said in a statement. “We know that by bringing more medical marijuana patients into the legal marketplace in a timely manner and doing more to level the playing field for licensed medical marijuana providers, we can protect residents, support local businesses, and provide clarity to the community.”

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Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser on Wednesday signed a bill into law that will ease access for medical cannabis patients in the nation’s capital.

Known as the Medical Marijuana Self-Certification Emergency Amendment Act of 2022, the measure will allow patients who are in the medical cannabis program to “self-certify” their qualifying condition for the treatment.

That means, effective immediately, those patients will no longer need to receive a recommendation from a doctor in order to receive a medical cannabis card.

Bowser hailed the new ordinance as a victory both for patients and medical cannabis providers.

“We have made it a priority over the years to build a more patient-centric medical marijuana program and this legislation builds on those efforts,” Bowser said in a statement on Wednesday. “We know that by bringing more medical marijuana patients into the legal marketplace in a timely manner and doing more to level the playing field for licensed medical marijuana providers, we can protect residents, support local businesses, and provide clarity to the community.”

“I applaud the Council for moving forward this innovative solution to a complex issue, and I look forward to working with the Council and ABRA on permanent, more comprehensive medical marijuana legislation in the future,” she continued.

The ordinance was passed late last month by the Washington, D.C. City Council.

Supporters of the measure said it was essential for medical cannabis dispensaries in Washington, D.C. that have taken a hit to their bottom line due to the prevalence of illicit pot retailers in the city.

“Due to the lower barriers to access in the gray market, a significant number of medical marijuana patients have shifted from purchasing their medical marijuana from legal medical dispensaries to the illicit gray market, creating a significant risk to the long-term viability of the District’s legal medical marijuana industry,” Councilmembers Kenyan McDuffie and Mary Cheh, the two sponsors of the ordinance, said in a statement last month. “If this trend continues, it is possible that gray market sales could wipe out the District’s legal marijuana dispensaries.”

Many of those unregulated cannabis retailers in Washington, D.C. employ the practice of “gifting,” by which a customer pays for a product such as a t-shirt and in turn receives a “gift” of cannabis.

In April, the D.C. City Council voted down a proposal that would have imposed hefty fines on those illicit pot stores.

Under the proposal, those unregulated shops would have been hit with fines up to $30,000. It also would have permitted adults aged 21 and older in D.C. to obtain medical cannabis without a doctor’s visit.

Looming over this dilemma is a Congress-imposed ban on recreational sales in Washington, D.C.

Voters in the district approved an initiative in 2014 that legalized recreational cannabis, but Congress, which oversees D.C. laws, has included a provision in every appropriations bill since then that prohibits the commercialization of recreational pot in the city.

It was a blow to cannabis advocates in the nation’s capital, and to Bowser, who expressed hope last fall when Senate Democrats unveiled a spending bill that did not include the provision.

“The Senate appropriations bill is a critical step in recognizing that in a democracy, D.C. residents should be governed by D.C. values,” Bower’s office said in a statement at the time. “As we continue on the path to D.C. statehood, I want to thank Senate Appropriations Committee Chair, Senator Patrick Leahy, our good friend and Subcommittee Chair, Senator Chris Van Hollen, and, of course, our champion on the Hill, Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton, for recognizing and advancing the will of D.C. voters. We urge Congress to pass a final spending bill that similarly removes all anti-Home Rule riders, allowing D.C. to spend our local funds as we see fit.”

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A bill that sought to levy harsh fines on businesses in Washington, D.C. that engage in the practice of “gifting” –– whereby a retailer sells a product or good to customer that is accompanied by a “gift” of cannabis –– failed to advance within the district’s city council on Tuesday.

The emergency legislation would have “created fines of $30,000 for shops caught gifting marijuana to customers and allowed D.C. residents over 21 to purchase medical marijuana without seeing a doctor first and simply self-attesting to their medical need,” according to NBC Washington.

Local television station WTOP reported that the “council voted 8-5 in favor of the bill, but because it was emergency legislation, it needed nine votes to advance.”

The bill was pushed by Phil Mendelson, the chairman of the D.C. Council, who called for an emergency vote on the legislation last week.

Mendelson says that the widespread practice of “gifting” has undermined the district’s medical cannabis establishments, with patients opting to procure weed via illicit means instead of through the regulated channels. As such, the bill would have nixed the requirement to see a doctor prior to buying medical cannabis.

“The medical side are struggling on the brink of existence, while the illegal side has only grown more rapidly,” Mendelson, a Democrat, said, as quoted by the Washington Post.

The Post said that the bill “had alarmed many of the proprietors and patrons of those [gifting] shops, which faced steep civil fines under the proposed legislation that they said could have put them out of business.”

Some owners of those establishments said that the bill would have had a devastating economic impact on the city.

“If the legislation passed today, it would put hundreds if not thousands of people out of work,” said Derek Dawson, a proprietor of one of the gifting shops, as quoted by NBC Washington. “Sixty percent of the people who are involved in the industry are either Black or Hispanic, and so like the people of color have found a way to find social equity in this market,”

As business owners like Dawson see it, the initiative passed by a majority of D.C. voters in 2014 that legalized recreational pot use gave them the right to “gift” weed to customers.

Complicating matters is Congress, which oversees all laws in the nations’ capital. And since 2014, every congressional spending bill has included a provision that has barred Washington, D.C. from commercializing cannabis.

There was hope among cannabis reform advocates that the current Democratic-led Congress would scrap that provision, known as the “Harris Rider,” named for its author Republican Congressman Andy Harris of Maryland.

Those hopes were bolstered in the fall, when Senate Democrats unveiled a draft of an appropriations bill that notably did not include the Harris Rider, a development that was applauded by Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser.

“The Senate appropriations bill is a critical step in recognizing that in a democracy, D.C. residents should be governed by D.C. values,” the mayor’s office said in a statement at the time. “As we continue on the path to D.C. statehood, I want to thank Senate Appropriations Committee Chair, Senator Patrick Leahy, our good friend and Subcommittee Chair, Senator Chris Van Hollen, and, of course, our champion on the Hill, Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton, for recognizing and advancing the will of D.C. voters. We urge Congress to pass a final spending bill that similarly removes all anti-Home Rule riders, allowing D.C. to spend our local funds as we see fit.”

But the optimism fizzled out last month, when Democrats released a new appropriations bill that did include the rider.

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