The DC Council passed an emergency bill on Tuesday, June 28 allowing patients over the age of 21 to access medical marijuana without a doctor’s recommendation.
DC residents will now have the option of “self-certifying” that they need to use marijuana for medical purposes.
The bill was introduced by Councilmembers Mary Cheh and Kenyan McDuffie.
“Due to the lower barriers to access in the gray market, a significant number of medical marijuana patients have shifted from purchasing their medical marijuana from legal medical dispensaries to the illicit gray market, creating a significant risk to the long-term viability of the District’s legal medical marijuana industry,” Cheh and McDuffie said in a statement to support the bill.
Gray market sales amount to approximately $600 million per year and the number of patients who buy marijuana from medical dispensaries in DC has been in decline since December 2021, according to the pair.
“If this trend continues, it is possible that gray market sales could wipe out the District’s legal marijuana dispensaries. Given the benefits that regulated and safe legal dispensaries provide to medical marijuana users in the District, it is vital that the industry survive until the District can stand up a regulated recreational market and transition toward full regulation of recreational marijuana products,” the Councilmembers stated.
On June 7, the DC Council passed another bill to ease marijuana restrictions by prohibiting employers from firing or taking disciplinary actions against an employee for using marijuana outside of work.
New DC Bill Bans Discrimination Against Employees Due to Cannabis Use