D.C. Liquor Board to Oversee Medical Cannabis
Some are concerned by the liquor connection, but D.C.'s law remains strict
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LOS ANGELES, CA - MAY 11: Jars full of medical marijuana are seen at Sunset Junction medical marijuana dispensary on May 11, 2010 in Los Angeles, California. The dispensary is one 25 plaintiffs in a lawsuit against the city of Los Angeles fighting to stay open after city prosecutors began notifying 439 medical marijuana dispensaries that they must shut down by June 7. (Photo by Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)
When the District's medical marijuana regulations go into effect next year, legislators from states mulling similar bills around the nation will be looking to D.C. as an example. Will they find a solution that will serve conservative constituencies as in Alabama and Tennessee -- two states considering passing their own medical marijuana legislation -- or will they find a system prone to abuse?
At a superficial glance, the draft regulations that make the District's liquor board responsible for producing and distributing medical cannabis suggest a lenient or recreational atmosphere for D.C. In fact, the city's severe marijuana laws don't leave a lot of room for abuse -- and may exclude patients in need.
The Washington Post's Mike DeBonis takes a first stab at the draft regulations with a Saturday report on how the medical marijuana dispensaries will be licensed. DeBonis notes that the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board will oversee the growth and distribution of medical marijuana and the Alcoholic Beverage Regulation Administration will enforce it, according to draft rules released by the Fenty administration on Friday.
DeBonis talks to Wayne Turner, the co-author of Initiative 59, which was the medical marijuana initiative overwhelmingly approved by District voters in 1998 that was hamstrung by Congress after it passed. Turner takes a negative view on the role of the liquor board in regulating medical marijuana in D.C. So does At-Large D.C. Council member David Catania, who would prefer the D.C. Department of Health to run the program. (The health department is responsible for registering the D.C. patients who are eligible for medical cannabis.)
"The District law is perhaps the most tightly regulated medical marijuana law in the nation," says Mike Meno, director of communications for Marijuana Policy Project, a marijuana legalization advocacy group.
After Congress lifted its budget ban prohibiting medical marijuana, Council member Catania -- along with At-Large Council member Phil Mendelson and Council Chairman (and mayoral candidate) Vince Gray -- drafted the legislation implementing Initiative 59 earlier this year.
That legislation establishes tighter regulations than evident in most of the 14 states where medical marijuana is legal.
In D.C., there are just five qualifying conditions for medical marijuana: Cancer, HIV, AIDS, multiple sclerosis, and glaucoma. That's stricter than the list of admissible conditions for 13 of the other 14 states with legalized medical marijuana -- some of which are introducing new conditions.
Another condition included in the new law -- perhaps the most stringent of all -- prohibits patients in D.C. from using marijuana they grow themselves. Only dispensaries have the authority to grow and distribute marijuana under the law. So, a patient who has been self medicating using home-grown marijuana on the advice of a doctor could still be arrested even after the regulations come into effect in January 2011 -- if that marijuana did not come through a dispensary.
Meno says that the fact that the District's marijuana dispensaries will be regulated by the liquor board is "definitely a unique aspect of the District law." However, the thinking behind the restrictive D.C. law is not unique on the East Coast.
"D.C. falls in line with a trend of medical marijuana jurisdictions, especially on the East Coast," says Meno. He says that some jurisdictions, especially in California, failed to pass local regulations that clarified the law, leading to some limited abuse of the system. Jurisdictions that have passed medical marijuana legislation in the meantime -- including D.C. -- have "erred on the side of caution."
It remains to be seen whether the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board and the Alcoholic Beverage Regulation Administration will serve as effective stewards of the medical marijuana dispensary system and prevent the prevent the proliferation of abuse. In drafting its regulations, the D.C. government has acted decidedly to stymie the possibility that recreational users will get their hands on medical cannabis.
"Unfortunately, that leaves a lot of patients at a disadvantage," says Meno.
