Weed gift giving is still legal in DC as the City Council declines an offer to crack down on the practice

Take a deep breath, DC cannabis users: the city won’t shut down your favorite “gift” dispensary.

On Tuesday, the DC Council narrowly defeated an emergency law that would have begun cracking down on dozens of the city’s unregulated and unlicensed “gift” shops in May. Customers at these dispensaries can purchase random items such as art, clothing, or stickers, and receive marijuana as a free gift included with their purchase.

Ever since DC voters legalized possession of up to two ounces of cannabis through Initiative 71 in 2014 — as well as the ability to give away up to one ounce — these businesses have argued that they are well within their right to conduct business.

The emergency law also aimed to prop up revenues for the city’s seven licensed medical pharmacies, which are said to be losing up to half their customer base to the “gift” shops.

To that end, the bill would have allowed any adult to “self-certify” as a medical patient by the end of September, effectively making marijuana available to anyone over the age of 21. Gift shops do not require customers to have a medical certificate.

“The legal businesses have seen a significant erosion of their business in the legal market and I would like to clarify, [gifting] It’s not a gray market, it’s an illegal market,” said Chair Phil Mendelson, the bill’s sponsor, in a press conference after the council meeting.

Congress won’t allow DC to legalize

Wondering why DC doesn’t just legalize weed and end all the confusion? It’s simple: Congress won’t allow it.

Since 2015, Congress has included a GOP-sponsored provision in national spending bills prohibiting the District of Columbia from opening a legal cannabis market.

The DC Council wants cannabis to be legal and regulated. The city’s mayor, Muriel Bowser, wants it to be legal. The city’s representative in Congress, Eleanor Holmes Norton, wants it to be legal. But until Congress — now, to put it bluntly, under Democrat control — scraps the provision on spending laws, the city cannot implement the wishes of its leaders, officials and residents.

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The battle for gift-giving isn’t necessarily over yet

The anti-gift law failed by a vote of 8-4 as emergency measures require 9 votes to pass. Mendelson could later reintroduce it as a non-emergency law.

Council members criticized the speed with which Mendelson brought about a vote. They also expressed concern that the businesses in the city’s gray area — Mendelson estimates there are several dozen — are owned by a diverse group of residents and that their closure would have a disproportionate impact on communities of color.

“I don’t feel comfortable bypassing the process with emergency legislation,” Councilor Janeese Lewis George (D-Ward 4) said during the meeting. “There will be significant racial justice implications if this legislation is passed. It’s blacks and browns who will lose.”

In the meantime, gifting remains in the clear, and yes, that means licensed stores will continue to suffer losses.

“If you want to talk about fair competition, they undermine the market, destroy fair competition, and don’t contribute as the laws normally require,” Corey Barnette, owner of Kinfolk Dispensary and District Growers, told the DCist.

Max Savage Levenson

Max Savage Levenson probably has the lowest cannabis tolerance of any author on the cannabis beat. He also writes about music for Pitchfork, Bandcamp and other bespectacled people. He is the co-host of the Hash podcast. His dream interview is Tyler the Creator.

Check out Max Savage Levenson’s articles

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