EXCLUSIVE: Is Washington DC’s ‘Cannabis Gifting’ Economy Coming To An End?
As Washington D.C.’s regulatory landscape around cannabis continues to evolve, the District’s “cannabis gifting” economy faces an uncertain future.
Benzinga Cannabis spoke with Grace Hyde, director of Commercial and Production Operations at District Cannabis and co-chair of the Regulated Cannabis Association of DC. Hyde shared her perspective on the recent efforts to crack down on this sui generis cannabis economy and its broader implications.
A Loophole On The Brink Of Closure
The gifting situation came about as the result of the District’s regulatory status; D.C. is not a state and therefore Congress holds oversight over its laws. As such, Congress has persistently blocked the establishment of a regulated retail market each time it came up for a vote, despite recreational cannabis having been legalized by voters in 2014 under Initiative 71. Thus the loophole in which shops began gifting cannabis as part of transactions involving other goods or services.
This workaround thrived for years, enabling hundreds of businesses to sell marijuana products without directly violating the law. Now, a wave of enforcement threatens to end it.
An earlier bill requiring owners of shops that gifted cannabis to transition into licensed medical cannabis dispensaries “opened up a lot of licenses so that all of these illegal stores could get a license and become legal. It has taken until now for the enforcement section to kick in. A lot of people …