Pinky swear you really need weed for medical reasons?

Good news, as non-residents and international tourists in Washington can now self-certify as medical marijuana patients. Out-of-state visitors who are at least 21 years old may apply online and pay a $30 non-refundable fee to qualify. Cannabis tourism in the nation’s capital, Washington, is set to explode with the new bill signed into law by Mayor Muriel Bowser.

Cannabis advocates in Washington have expressed their delight at the new law. They are optimistic that doing so would spur cannabis reforms across the country and trigger similar action in other communities across America.

Temporary self-certification for non-tourists in Washington

All citizens in the District of Washington have the right to self-certify under a law passed this summer. At the time, the bill served as a means to circumvent a congressional spending bill that would prevent the government from using locally generated revenue to implement a recreational cannabis market. According to reports from June to date, since the reform came into effect, medicinal cannabis registrations have increased significantly.

The new draft law has further strengthened the existing reforms by allowing even non-residents to register for one month (30 days) to purchase cannabis from authorized dispensaries. The Alcoholic Beverage Regulation Administration (ABRA) issues the license. Mayor Muriel Bowser is fixated on improving medicinal cannabis culture, and the signing of the bill, passed unanimously by the DC Council last month, places Washington among the top cannabis-friendly states in America.

Specifically, patients enrolled in medical cannabis programs in other states are eligible for full registration, as are Washington residents. The bill also raises the current holding limit from four to eight ounces. With the mayor’s signature, the immediate measure is now effective and will expire three months later.

Praise for the new policy

The founder of the National Holistic Healing Center, Dr. Chanda Macias welcomed the change in law. The Healing Center is a medical marijuana dispensary located in Washington, DC

Macias said nearly 20 million domestic visitors who come to Washington, DC annually can now use medical marijuana there. This will increase patient access to herbal medicines and bring new patients into the thriving local medical marijuana industry. She stressed that Washington, DC, is setting the pace for expanding patient access to everyone, as these recent laws show.

According to a poll conducted last month, DC voters strongly support marijuana legalization and oppose taking action on the cannabis “gift market” that has sprung up due to a lack of regulated cannabis sales. A 2014 loophole in the law allows the gift of cannabis and has allowed most Washington cannabis companies to operate in violation of DC medical marijuana laws. Officials have condemned the practice but have backed down from taking action to investigate the businesses and individuals involved.

Further plans to improve patient access to medicinal cannabis

Although ABRA recently implemented a rule allowing temporary 30-day patient registrations, resulting in more than 5,000 registrations since August, it agrees that there is still a need to increase patient access to medicinal cannabis for qualified non-resident visitors to the District of Columbia are not enrolled in a medical cannabis program in another jurisdiction.

Meanwhile, the mayor is considering an additional measure that would extend the duration of the permits to 225 days and has a few days to decide whether to proceed. The resolution emphasizes that several states, such as Hawaii and Oklahoma, already allow visiting patients from other jurisdictions to register and obtain provisional patient registration papers from the state visiting the hemp products access facility.

ABRA announced the effective date of the new rule on Thursday, and the notification makes it clear that it also affects travelers from other countries visiting the country’s capital.

The federal government is also taking steps to reform legal cannabis legislation ahead of the next general election in 2024. To that end, US Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) urged President Joe Biden to go further and legalize cannabis at the federal level and allow the district to establish a commercial cannabis market and grant pardons. That proposal came after President Biden issued a statement pardoning Americans who had committed federal offenses related to marijuana possession and people who broke the law in DC earlier this month.

According to the representative, the continued local ban maintained in Biden’s recent two budget proposals is a violation of Washington DC’s home rule by a Democratic government.

Washington’s Medical Cannabis Program

Currently, any patient in Washington DC, resident or not, can enroll as a patient by filling out a simple form without a doctor’s referral. The self-certification process that came into force on July 6 seems to be responsible for the continued strong increase in registrations. Since the city has allowed citizens to self-certify without a doctor’s recommendation, the number of patients registered for medical marijuana in Washington, DC has continued to rise; Around 1,500 additional patients entered the program in September alone.

Fourteen thousand four hundred and sixty-eight people registered in the medical marijuana district in June. That immediately rose to 15,730 in July, 21,051 in August, and then nearly another 1,500 over the next month. A total of 22,482 cannabis patients were registered in DC in the last week of September, up 90 percent from October 2021 and almost doubling the patient population last year.

From June through September, the number of medical cannabis patients in Washington, DC increased by 55%. Additionally, according to ABRA retail sales data, DC’s seven registered pharmacies recorded sales of over $2.9 million in September, of which $1.3 million was from non-residents.

bottom line

Washington, DC has wisely chosen alternative reform to make medicinal cannabis as affordable and available as possible. The move is expected to boost the capital’s tourism sector and the overall economy. Cannabis supporters believe that over time, President Biden will deliver on his campaign promises and implement broader reforms in the federal cannabis sector.

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