Doctors are no longer needed for seniors to get medical marijuana in DC

By Maureen Meehan

Registering for medical marijuana in Washington DC is about to get a lot easier for seniors

Mayor Muriel Bowser has signed legislation that expands access to the district’s medical marijuana program in several ways.

Photo by rawpixel.com

For starters, people aged 65 and older can “self-certify that they will use cannabis for medicinal purposes, rather than attaching a recommendation from their doctor to their application for registration, as is required for all other applicants,” the administration said.

The law also extends the registration grace period for other patients and creates a week-long medical marijuana tax “holiday” that coincidentally coincides with April 20.

Registering for medical marijuana in Washington DC is about to get a lot easier for seniors

Mayor Muriel Bowser has signed legislation that expands access to the district’s medical marijuana program in several ways.

For starters, people aged 65 and older can “self-certify that they will use cannabis for medicinal purposes, rather than attaching a recommendation from their doctor to their application for registration, as is required for all other applicants,” the administration said.

The law also extends the registration grace period for other patients and creates a week-long medical marijuana tax “holiday” that coincidentally coincides with April 20.

Photo by Westend61/Getty Images

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Senior Week is part of the Emergency Amendment Act of 2022 extending patient access to medical marijuana, which Mayor Bowser signed into law last week.

There’s more: Patient and caregiver registrations issued by September 30 are valid for two years, which is double the usual term; registration fees are already waived through April 24, and medicinal cannabis products purchased from one of DC’s seven licensed dispensaries are exempt from 6% sales tax.

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The emergency legislation aims to ease the logistical burden on medical marijuana patients and encourage people to get their cannabis from licensed dispensaries rather than gray market vendors.

This article originally appeared on Benzinga and has been republished with permission.