With the laws on cannabis changing drastically year to year, it can be hard to keep up with the times. We put together an article on the most recent changes to the District of Colombia Marijuana laws. Learn more below!
Status: Fully Legal
Decriminalized: Yes
Medical: Yes
Bill Introduced to Regulate and Tax Marijuana in D.C.
Recently, a bill has been introduced by councilman David Grosso, which would regulate and tax cannabis for adults 21 and older. This bill also includes an expungement to remove criminal records from those who have past marijuana convictions. Mayor Bowser is also behind taxing and regulating marijuana in the D.C. area.
In November of 2014 the voters of D.C. approved the Initiative-71, which legalized the cultivation and possession of marijuana, in limited amounts, for adults over 21.
Because D.C. has problems controlling their budget, it’s been easy for Congress to block D.C. form regulating and taxing the sales of marijuana. Not only is D.C. missing out on an incredible amount of revenue, but they’re also making it difficult to find medical grade cannabis that is lawful.
This has created a “grey market” of operators, which in turn, develops into more arrests for cannabis. Recently, leadership has changed, which may finally allow the District of Colombia to set up its own cannabis policies.
Medical Marijuana Program Improvements Considered By D.C. Council
David Grosso, Councilman for D.C. has introduced a bill that would allow patients to access medical marijuana from dispensaries on day one. The bill is also going to remove limits on the amount of cannabis plants you can cultivate, and add a home delivery service for patients.
In 2016 B21-0210 was approved by the Council, which was to provide a District-wide tracking system for patients, so that if you were registered as a medical marijuana patient in a different state, you could still purchase marijuana in D.C. from their dispensaries.
As of now, only a few states are a part of this program, the following are all the states that D.C. excepts in their program: Delaware, Connecticut, Colorado, Florida, Oregon, New Jersey, Maine, Massachusetts, Montana, Michigan, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Washington, Rhode Island, and Hawaii.
Other improvements to the medical program include testing from independent laboratories on medical cannabis, which would allow other professionals in the medical field to recommend marijuana. They also increased the amount of marijuana you can purchase in a month from 2 ounces to 4 ounces. Also, if you had prior convictions, or misdemeanors for marijuana or intent to sell, you can still be apart of the medical cannabis program in D.C.
Not a big business? No problem. They recently made things easier for the minority business owner to get licensing for a dispensary.
Stay tuned for more information on the laws in D.C.!
