ENVIRONMENTAL & SOCIAL JUSTICE
Cannabis In The D-M-V
Summer 2021 Update on Cannabis Laws in DC, MD & VA
medical cannabis program was administered by the Department of Health, but in Fall 2020, the Alcoholic Beverage Regulation Ad - ministration assumed responsibility for its administration. ABRA will be accepting applications for another dispensary, two addition- al cultivation centers and two testing facilities in Summer 2021. As discussed above, the Constitution imbues Congress with the power to largely control the District’s budget. When the D.C. Council passes a municipal budget, it is automatically incorporated into the federal budget. This means that members of Congress have the ability to single handedly influence how the District is permitted to allocate its budget. What does all this have to do with cannabis? Good question. In Fall 2014, District voters overwhelmingly passed Ballot Initiative 71 (or I-71 as it is colloquially referred to), which legalized (kind of) adult-use cannabis. Under I-71, it is legal for an adult (age 21 and older) to possess and transport up to 2 ounces of cannabis, and to transfer up to 1 ounce of cannabis to another adult. One adult is also permitted to cultivate no more than 6 cannabis plants in their principal residence,
BY MEREDITH KINNER AND JOHN MCGOWAN
Forty-nine states, the District of Columbia and the U.S. territories of Guam, the Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico and the Northern Mariana Islands currently have laws which legalize cannabis or low-THC CBD for medical use. And, as of Summer 2021 , 19 states, the District of Columbia, Guam and the NorthernMariana Islands will have legalized adult use cannabis. Despite the overwhelming trend toward legaliza - tion at the state level, cannabis is still 100% illegal at the federal level. The proliferation of legalized cannabis has forced the industry to reconcile with the fact it has traditionally been considered an industry largely occupied by white males. Many Black and Brown individuals have been historically prohibited from participating in the legal in- dustry, as an owner or employee, either due to a prior felony drug con- viction and/or lack of access to capital. The hypocrisy of preventing people with drug convictions from legally selling drugs, particularly in light of the Black Lives Matter movement and the national reckoning
with systemic racism, has not been lost on state legislators. Over the past few years jurisdictions that have legalized adult use cannabis have all passed laws that include social equity provisions. These are intended to address some of these inequities and provide a pathway for BIPOC and others that have been harmed by the war on drugs to meaningfully participate in the lucrative legal cannabis market. The laws here in the tri-state area, which includes the District, Mary - land and Virginia, are no exception. I. Washington, D.C. The District is a unique juris- diction for many reasons, not the least of which is its relationship with Congress, which controls the District’s purse strings and has far reaching oversight over legislation put forward by the City Council as well as ballot initiatives adopted by District voters. To understand why Congress plays such an outsized
with 3 of the plants being mature and budding at any one time; and two adults may cultivate up to 12 plants in their principal residence with six being mature at one time. An adult is also permitted to pos - sess the harvest from their legally grown plants in their residence. Shortly after I-71 was passed by District voters Representative Andy Harris, a Republican Con - gressman fromMaryland’s Eastern Shore, authored an amendment, or “rider”, which was included in the federal budget. Harris’s budget rider prevented the District from using its budget to “enact any law, rule, or regulation to legalize or otherwise reduce penalties asso- ciated with the possession, use, or distribution of [cannabis].” In this way the Harris Rider effectively prevents the District from using its own budget to develop and imple- ment the regulatory infrastructure required to create a taxed and reg- ulated adult-use cannabis market.
I-71’s restraint on the actual sale of cannabis has created a gray economy where businesses transfer or “gift” legal amounts of can- nabis to adults. These small businesses largely operate as any oth- er small retailer would, except when a customer purchases a retail product, say a T-shirt or art, they also receive a gift of cannabis. If a business is charging fair market value for its retail products, it can be said that there is no value being attached to the gift of cannabis. I-71 has co-existed with the Harris Rider because the rider only prevents the District from enacting any law which legalizes the sale and possession of cannabis; the Harris Rider does not prevent the District from carrying out any law which legalizes cannabis. This distinction is important. I-71 does not run afoul of the Harris Rider,
role inDistrictaffairs,wehavetostartwiththeFoundingFathers.Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution allows Congress to “exercise exclusive” control over the District in “all cases whatsoever”. This broad language essentiallygrantsCongressunfetteredcontrol over theDistrict’s affairs. In 1998, HIV/AIDS activists in the District succeeded in get - ting medical cannabis on the ballot. The measure passed with 70% approval, but Congress intervened to prevent the District from implementing a regulatory structure. Congress lifted this pro- hibition in 2009, and the District began the process of licensing medical cannabis cultivators and dispensaries. In 2013, 15 years after the 1998 ballot measure was passed, the District’s first regis - tered patient was finally able to legally purchase medical cannabis. There are currently 7 dispensaries, 8 cultivation centers and 9,276 registered patients in the District. Until recently, the District’s
continued on page 33
PATHWAYS—Summer 21—13
Made with FlippingBook flipbook maker