Mayor Vince Gray is reviewing the policies that will govern the District’s medical marijuana program and is being pushed to make changes that could help improve the program’s reception on Capitol Hill. The design of the city’s medical marijuana program is largely left up to the mayor. Before leaving office, Adrian Fenty created a governing structure that puts the power of selling licenses to dispensaries in the hands of a mayor-appointed four-member board. Fenty couldn’t begin appointing members of that oversight board until either the council approved the policies or 90 days had passed.
| D.C.’s plan |
| The basics of the city’s medical marijuana program: |
| > 5 dispensaries |
| > 10 “cultivation centers” |
| > Open only to patients with HIV, AIDS, cancer, glaucoma or multiple sclerosis |
On Wednesday, at-large Councilman David Catania informed Gray that if the mayor doesn’t act to appoint the board, the city’s Alcoholic Beverage Control Board will be able to send out solicitations for marijuana dispensary applications on Feb. 14. The board could not immediately comment.
The mayoral-appointed board “doesn’t have to be constituted before solicitations are issued,” Catania said.
He then pushed Gray to consider delegating the authority for running the medical marijuana program to a licensing board in the city’s health department.
“We’re at the very early stages of this,” Gray later told The Washington Examiner. “We have to consider the groundwork that was done before [I took office].”
Gray added, “Hopefully by [Feb. 14] we’ll be operative, but we’ll see how it works out.”
At-large Councilman Phil Mendelson said moving the program under the health department’s oversight might help with perceptions in the Republican-led House of Representatives, which some fear might repeal medical marijuana in the nation’s capital.
“The alcohol control board is appointed with an eye toward a potential member’s stance on neighborhoods and businesses. How does that relate to marijuana?” Mendelson said. “Medical marijuana is about use for medical purposes and the proper jurisdiction may be the health department, and that may help us make our case to Congress.”
But medical marijuana advocates said the alcohol board is in the best position to start regulating medical marijuana now, and they’ve grown tired of waiting for the program to become a reality. The council passed the medical marijuana bill last April.
“Given the history of Congress meddling in the District, we wouldn’t want to do anything to send the wrong message,” said Dan Riffle, a lobbyist at the Marijuana Policy Project. “But the patients I’ve spoken to … don’t care which agency does it.”
