The mayor of Washington, D.C. has signed a invoice permitting non-residents to self-certify as medical marijuana sufferers whereas they’re visiting the nation’s capital with out the necessity for any physician’s suggestion—a transfer that supporters say may increase tourism.
Residents of the District are already capable of self-certify below a regulation that was enacted over the summer season as a manner of successfully circumventing a congressional spending invoice rider that blocks D.C. from utilizing its native tax {dollars} to implement a system of regulated, adult-use hashish gross sales. Medical marijuana registrations surged after the reform took impact.
Now Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) has expanded on that reform, signing momentary emergency laws on Monday that lets non-residents get hold of a 30-day registration from the Alcoholic Beverage Regulation Administration (ABRA) to buy marijuana from licensed dispensaries.
The invoice, which unanimously cleared the D.C. Council late final month, additionally makes it so sufferers who’re registered in medical hashish applications in different states can qualify for a full registration identical to District residents. It additional will increase the quantity {that a} affected person can possess from 4 to eight ounces.
The emergency act took impact with the mayor’s signature and sunsets 90 days after enactment. A complementary measure that may final for 225 days has additionally handed the Council is at the moment below evaluate by the mayor, who has till October 25 to behave on the proposal.
D.C. lawmakers moreover handed a associated resolution declaring an emergency that necessitates the reform.
It says that whereas ABRA just lately instituted a coverage offering momentary, 30-day affected person registrations—which has resulted in additional than 5,000 registrations since August—there “stays a must broaden upon affected person entry to medical hashish for qualifying non-resident sufferers visiting the District of Columbia who usually are not enrolled in one other jurisdiction’s medical hashish program.”
The decision factors out that states like Hawaii and Oklahoma “already enable visiting sufferers from different jurisdictions to register and procure momentary affected person registrations playing cards from the jurisdiction being visited to buy medical hashish.”
ABRA issued a notice of the brand new regulation taking impact on Thursday that factors out that it additionally applies to worldwide guests to the U.S. capital.
To self-certify, out-of-state candidates who’re not less than 21 years of age can apply on-line and pay a non-refundable $30 price.
Non-DC residents (home & intl. guests) at the moment are eligible for a temp medical hashish affected person registration. Registrations are legitimate for 30-days, can be utilized instantly upon completion of software.
Apply: linkhttps://abra.dc.gov/node/1626021
— DCGov_ABRA (@DCGov_ABRA) October 21, 2022
Dr. Chanda Macias, founding father of the D.C. medical hashish dispensary the Nationwide Holistic Therapeutic Heart, praised the brand new coverage.
“Now, the almost 20 million home vacationers who go to Washington, D.C. annually may have entry to medical hashish throughout their keep in D.C.,” she mentioned. “It will result in elevated affected person entry to plant-based drugs and can introduce new sufferers to the flourishing native medical marijuana panorama. These most up-to-date actions are proof that Washington, D.C. is main the way in which because it pertains to increasing affected person entry to all.”
Whereas advocates have welcomed the legislative efforts to broaden hashish entry within the District, many proceed to push for an finish to the federal blockade that’s prevented D.C. from establishing a regulated market, regardless of voters approving an initiative to legalize possession and private cultivation in 2014.
After President Joe Biden issued a proclamation earlier this month pardoning Individuals who’ve dedicated federal marijuana possession offenses, in addition to individuals who’ve violated the regulation in D.C., U.S. Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) known as on the president to go additional by federally legalizing hashish and letting the District set up a business hashish market and grant clemency by itself.
The congresswoman mentioned the continuing native ban, which was maintained in Biden’s final two price range proposals, represents a “stunning violation of D.C. dwelling rule by a Democratic administration.”
A ballot launched final month discovered that D.C. voters strongly help marijuana legalization and oppose a crackdown on the hashish “gifting” market that’s emerged within the absence of regulated gross sales.
D.C. lawmakers additionally just lately despatched letters to Home and Senate Appropriations Committees management, imploring them to take away the rider stopping native hashish gross sales as a part of Fiscal Yr 2023 spending laws.
—
Marijuana Second is monitoring greater than 1,500 hashish, psychedelics and drug coverage payments in state legislatures and Congress this 12 months. Patreon supporters pledging not less than $25/month get entry to our interactive maps, charts and listening to calendar in order that they don’t miss any developments.
Study extra about our marijuana invoice tracker and turn into a supporter on Patreon to get entry.
—
The Home handed the related spending invoice for FY 2023 in July, excluding the D.C. marijuana prohibition language. Within the Senate, the laws that’s at the moment on the desk from the Democratic Appropriations Committee chairman additionally omits the rider.
Bowser, Norton and different elected officers within the metropolis have routinely criticized Congress for singling out the District and depriving it of the power to do what a rising variety of states have performed with out federal interference.
Norton informed Marijuana Second in a cellphone interview in July that she’s “pretty optimistic” that the rider is not going to be included within the closing spending bundle. She added that the D.C. self-certification coverage is an “efficient workaround” till then.
The affected person self-certification provision of the measure represents a big growth of one other piece of laws enacted into regulation this 12 months that enables individuals 65 and older to self-certify for medical hashish with no physician’s suggestion.
In the meantime, the mayor signed a invoice in July that bans most workplaces from firing or in any other case punishing staff for marijuana use.
The reform is designed to construct upon on a earlier measure lawmakers accepted to guard native authorities staff in opposition to office discrimination resulting from their use of medical hashish.
Whereas circuitously associated to the coverage change, a D.C. administrative court docket just lately reversed the termination of a authorities worker and medical hashish affected person who was fired after being suspected of intoxication on the job and subsequently examined optimistic for marijuana in late 2020. It additionally ordered the Workplace of Unified Communications (OUC) to reimburse the employee for all again pay and advantages.