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The mayor of Washington, D.C. has signed a bill into law that will expand access to the District\u2019s medical marijuana program in a series of ways.<\/p>\n
Now, senior citizens will be able to self-certify their own eligibility for cannabis without having to get a recommendation from a doctor. The law also further extends the registration renewal deadline for patients and creates a week-long medical marijuana tax relief \u201choliday\u201d that coincides with the unofficial cannabis event known as 4\/20.<\/p>\n
Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) signed the bill two weeks after the D.C. Council voted unanimously in favor<\/a> of the proposal, which was sponsored by Chairman Phil Mendelson (D).<\/p>\n The emergency legislation is meant to ease logistical burdens for patients in the jurisdiction and incentive people to obtain cannabis from licensed dispensaries, rather than buy their products from gray market vendors who have taken advantage of a workaround related to the District\u2019s policy allowing for marijuana gifting between adults.<\/p>\n The \u201cMedical Marijuana Patient Access Extension Emergency Amendment Act of 2022\u201d is designed to help address<\/a>\u00a0rising cannabis costs at licensed dispensaries and \u201cthe continuing threat posed by illicit cannabis storefronts and delivery services,\u201d the text of a companion\u00a0resolution<\/a>\u00a0says.<\/p>\n With respect to senior citizens over 65, the law makes it so those individuals will no longer have to go through the hoop of obtaining recommendations and renewals from physicians to continue to access cannabis products based on self-certification for medical need until September 30.<\/p>\n The Alcoholic Beverage Regulation Administration (ABRA) discussed the legislation in a press release on Tuesday, and it also announced that it would be launching a \u201cSenior Week\u201d from February 22-25 to help assist seniors in the self-certification process.<\/p>\n \u201cSenior Week will provide qualifying patients 65 years of age and older with the option to obtain a two-year registration card at no cost prior to the start of the medical cannabis sales tax holiday on April 15,\u201d ABRA Director Fred Moosally said<\/a>. \u201cWe appreciate the steps taken by the D.C. Council to ease the burdens for qualifying patients to access medical cannabis a result of this emergency legislation.\u201d<\/p>\n The will also generally expand on prior emergency legislation that the Council approved<\/a> at the height of the coronavirus pandemic to extend registration eligibility for the medical cannabis program. Patients under 65 with registrations will continue to be validated through at least September 30.<\/p>\n Finally, the\u00a0measure creates an incentive to keep people out of illicit or gray markets by creating a \u201c\u20184\/20 Medical Cannabis Sales Tax Holiday Week\u2019 where medical cannabis patients would not pay the six percent sales tax for the period of Friday, April 15, 2022 through Sunday, April 24, 2022.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2014 In 2019, another D.C. lawmaker\u00a0proposed a separate medical cannabis reform bill<\/a>\u00a0meant to ease the registration process for patients. Instead of having to wait several weeks for regulators to process their medical cannabis approvals, patients would simply fill out an application with the city health department and would then automatically qualify to legally purchase marijuana on a provisional basis.<\/p>\n The legislation\u2019s author, at-large Councilmember David Grosso (I), introduced a similar bill in 2017, though that version allowed residents to\u00a0self-certify as medical marijuana patients<\/a>\u2014without the need to involve a doctor\u2014by signing an affidavit, and it didn\u2019t have the stipulation that their qualifications could be later rejected.<\/p>\n This latest reform development in D.C. comes as the jurisdictions prepares to implement adult-use cannabis sales, which they\u2019ve been blocked from doing so due to a congressional rider despite D.C. voters approving legalization in 2014.<\/p>\n Lawmakers held a joint hearing in November\u00a0on a pair of bills to authorize the legal sale of recreational marijuana<\/a>\u00a0and significantly expand the existing medical cannabis program in the nation\u2019s capital.<\/p>\n A provision of the bill that could have led to a broad crackdown on the city\u2019s unregulated market for recreational cannabis was removed, much to the relief of advocates who\u00a0criticized the proposed measure over a component that would have punished businesses that \u201cgift\u201d marijuana in a manner that effectively circumvents the local prohibition on retail cannabis sales.<\/p>\n Marijuana possession and gifting is legal under a voter-approved 2014 initiative\u2014but there currently isn\u2019t a regulated market and people aren\u2019t allowed to accept any form of renumeration for gifting.<\/p>\n The U.S. House\u00a0passed Fiscal Year 2022 spending legislation<\/a>\u00a0that would remove the block on D.C. marijuana sales in July. The Senate has not yet advanced its version of the bill through the Appropriations Committee or on the floor, though panel leaders released a draft measure in October that would\u00a0similarly let D.C. legalize marijuana commerce<\/a>.<\/p>\n Democratic congressional leaders are moving to delete the rider despite the fact that\u00a0President Joe Biden\u2019s budget proposal sought to continue the Republican-led ban<\/a>.<\/p>\n Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC), who represents the District in Congress, said in November that she is\u00a0\u201ccloser than ever\u201d to removing the blockade<\/a>\u00a0on cannabis commerce in her district.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, the mayor said last April that local officials are prepared to move forward<\/a>\u00a0with\u00a0implementing a legal system of recreational marijuana sales<\/a>\u00a0in the nation\u2019s capital just as soon as they can get over the final \u201churdle\u201d of congressional interference.<\/p>\n Bowser introduced a cannabis commerce bill last February, though her measure was not on the agenda for November\u2019s hearing alongside the\u00a0cannabis legalization proposal\u00a0put forward by Mendelson<\/a>.<\/p>\n Under the chairman\u2019s bill, at least half of marijuana business licensees would issued to social equity applicants, defined as people who faced previous convictions for cannabis-related offenses or have lived in areas with high levels of poverty, unemployment or marijuana arrests for 10 of the past 20 years.<\/p>\n The tax rate for adult-use marijuana products would be set at 13 percent, while medical cannabis would be taxed at six percent.<\/p>\n Thirty percent of tax revenue from cannabis sales would go toward a Cannabis Equity and Opportunity Fund, which would \u201cprovide loans, grants and technical assistance to these applicants.<\/p>\n Fifty percent of tax revenue would go to a community reinvestment fund that would provide grants to \u201corganizations addressing issues such as economic development, homeless prevention, support for returning citizens, and civil legal aid in areas with high poverty, unemployment, and gun violence.<\/p>\n The courts would be required to identify and expunge records for people convicted of marijuana offenses made legal under the law. People who are actively incarcerated could have their sentence \u201cmodified, vacated, or set aside.<\/p>\n There are also consumer protections written into the legislation, ensuring that people using cannabis in compliance with the law don\u2019t lose benefits, employment or other social services.<\/p>\n Local marijuana activists also proposed an amendment to Mendelson\u2019s legalization bill that would\u00a0allow small entrepreneurs to sell cannabis at farmers markets<\/a>. It\u2019s not clear when D.C. lawmakers will convene again to vote on proposed changes and the overall legislation.<\/p>\n The separate medical cannabis\u00a0bill that the Council considered late last year would allow patients to obtain marijuana from any registered dispensary in the District, instead of just one that they\u2019re registered with under current law. A summary says that dispensaries could also \u201coperate safe use treatment facilities as well as offer tastings and demonstrations and\/or classes with the proper endorsements\u201d under the proposal.<\/p>\n Further, delivery and curbside pickup would be permitted. The cap on the number of plants that a cultivation center can grow would be eliminated, and the number of dispensaries permitted in the District would be increased. Additionally, the bill seeks to remove \u201ccertain prohibitions against returning citizens ability to take part in the medical marijuana industry.\u201d<\/p>\n Last March, a federal oversight agency determined that the congressional rider blocking marijuana sales in D.C. does not preclude local officials from\u00a0taking procedural steps to prepare<\/a>\u00a0for the eventual reform, such as holding hearings, even if they cannot yet enact it with the blockade pending.<\/p>\n Separately, another group of activists\u00a0announced an effort to pressure local lawmakers enact<\/a>\u00a0broad drug decriminalization, with a focus on promoting harm reduction programs, in the nation\u2019s capital. A poll released last year found that voters are\u00a0strongly in favor of proposals<\/a>.<\/p>\n New York Senate Approves Marijuana Licensing And Equity Bill, With Assembly Vote Imminent<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n The post D.C. Mayor Signs Bill To Let Older Patients Get Medical Marijuana Without Doctors And Create 4\/20 Cannabis Tax Holiday<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
The mayor of Washington, D.C. has signed a bill into law that will expand access to the District\u2019s medical marijuana program in a series of ways. Now, senior citizens will be able to self-certify their own eligibility for cannabis without having to get a recommendation from a doctor. The lawContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":458,"featured_media":52972,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18,81],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52971"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/458"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52971"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52971\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":52973,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52971\/revisions\/52973"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52972"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52971"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52971"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\nRead More: D.C. Mayor Signs Bill To Let Older Patients Get Medical Marijuana Without Doctors And Create 4\/20 Cannabis Tax Holiday<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"