WASHINGTON — A new bill takes direct aim at the roundabout way weed is sold in D.C.
Tuesday, the D.C. Council is expected to vote on Chairman Phil Mendelson's emergency legislation that would allow the District to fine any unlicensed marijuana business and its landlord up to $30,000.
Specifically affected would be those businesses using the "gifting" law to sell other products and supposedly give away weed.
Licensed medical marijuana businesses say with what they pay in taxes and fees, they can't compete with the unregulated gifting businesses.
"We've seen as a very significant hit to our revenue base ... I would say more than half over the last two years," said KINFOLK Dispensary and District Growers founder Corey Barnette.
The legislation would also allow anyone over 21 to "self certify" and obtain medical marijuana without a doctor.
"The legislation is making it easier for the legal businesses to operate and to be profitable," Mendelson said.
But advocates for the "gifting" businesses question whether the change will do much to help medical marijuana businesses unless more are allowed to open with less of a bureaucratic and financial burden to operate.
"This particular bill is extremely flawed and leads to a number of consequences that I don't believe they intended," said Joe Tierney of Gentlemantoker.com.
He says the legislation will push the "gifting" industry further underground and make it less safe, and could punish unsuspecting landlords whose tenants run small-time delivery businesses.
"As long as weed is legal here and there is a demand ... then there will still be people here to serve them," he said.
Then there is the question of equitable access to medical marijuana and the business of growing and selling it.
Tierney says the high barrier to entry for licensed operations prevents many from joining the industry and, at its current capacity, the medical marijuana industry can't serve the entire market should gifting be shut down.
Mendelson says there are discussions in District government about increasing the number of licenses. But, in the meantime, he says his office has found that a "majority" of the business owners selling marijuana through the gifting provision are not D.C. residents.
"I'm not feeling so sympathetic about illegal out-of-state operators in the District," he said.