By Planned inspection of unlicensed cannabis retailers in Washington, D.C. reportedly I’m late.
The inspection, announced last month by the city’s Office of Alcoholic Beverage Regulatory Administration, is designed to ensure businesses comply with “DC Health, Consumer Regulatory Agency (DCRA), District of Columbia fire and emergency regulatory requirements. The inspection, announced by the city’s Alcoholic Beverage Regulatory Administration last month, was designed to ensure businesses comply with the regulatory requirements of “DC Health, the Consumer Regulatory Agency (DCRA), Department of Fire and Emergency Medical Services (FEMS), District of Columbia, and Office of Taxation (OTR).
But DCist reports. Officials said they were “delaying plans to inspect many of the city’s marijuana gift shops this week, deepening turmoil over an industry that may or may not be legal that continues to grow across the city. There is.
Citing a source familiar with the situation, the outlet said: Said Law enforcement officials said they “expressed concerns about the protocols for inspecting stores and what would happen if inspectors found weapons or other illegal items.”
Testing was scheduled to begin after Labor Day.
Voters in the nation’s capital approved a 2014 ballot initiative to legalize recreational cannabis, but the sale of cannabis in Washington, D.C. remains prohibited due to arcane provisions that govern the law’s oversight. I’m here.
Since that vote eight years ago, every appropriation bill passed by Congress includes a “Harris rider” named Maryland Republican Rep. It contains what is known as
Democrats in the Capitol jumped at the idea of excluding Harris Rider from the latest appropriations bill, releasing a draft bill last fall.
But by March of this year, the final version of the bill included Harris Rider, much to the chagrin of DC’s cannabis reform advocates,
“The council needs to get out of this situation,” DC City Council Speaker Phil Mendelson said in March. “It perpetuates the city’s current lawlessness.”
Still, many intrepid business owners in Washington, D.C. haven’t stopped finding ways around the ban.
The city is home to a number of illegal retailers that sell cannabis through “gift” practices, where customers pay for merchandise such as t-shirts and are offered cannabis “gifts.”
Gift giving is so prevalent and growing in popularity in Washington, DC, that some policy makers and industry insiders are suggesting that patients opting for illegal routes instead of filling out legal, medical It has expressed concern that it is preying on the limitations of the cannabis business. cumbersome paperwork.
“The medical side is at risk of survival, and the illegal side is growing rapidly,” Mendelsohn said in April.
That month, the DC Council rejected a proposal to impose stiff fines on retailers who “gift.”
A few months later, the council passed another bill. It was also proposed to bolster the city’s struggling medical cannabis retailers. Under a new ordinance signed by Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser in July, medical cannabis patients in the city are now allowed to “self-certify” their eligibility for treatment, bypassing doctors. can do.
“We have made it a priority for years to build a more patient-centric medical marijuana program, and this law builds on those efforts,” Bowser said in a statement. I’m here. “We will protect and We know we can support local businesses and provide clarity to our communities.”
