While recreational cannabis is legal to possess and use in D.C., selling it remains illegal, and businesses accused of ignoring that law are now paying the price.
The D.C. attorney general’s office has been cracking down on shops that illegally sell marijuana, announcing Thursday that 25 stores have been shut down by the city so far.
More closures are likely on the way.
“We’re definitely not slowing down on this work,” said Stephanie Litos, senior counsel in the attorney general’s office. “We continue to get referrals, and when we get the referrals, we jump into action.”
Some of the cannabis sold by the closed stores was found to be laced with other narcotics, including amphetamines.
“It causes a serious risk,” Litos said. “There is no guarantee that anything somebody’s purchasing is what they say it is.”
Allen Amsterdam, co-author of “Initiative 71,” which legalized recreational marijuana in D.C., said businesses operating outside the legal framework are taking a major gamble.
“My message is: They’re coming for you, and it’s the law,” Amsterdam said.
He echoed Litos’s concerns.
“It does give it a bad name, because you don’t know what’s in any of the products,” Amsterdam said. “They’re not tested, so you have no idea. Is this person making it in their kitchen? Nobody knows.”
Amsterdam manages his own business — Capital Hemp in Adams Morgan, which he says sells not marijuana, but rather hemp and hemp-derived products, which are legal under 2018 legislation passed by Congress that authorized hemp production and removed hemp and hemp seeds from the Drug Enforcement Administration’s list of controlled substances.
Still, Amsterdam said the city has pressured him to stop operating.
“I have this existential threat,” Amsterdam said. “I’ve been caught up in this, and I shouldn’t have been targeted.”
Cannabis laws in the D.C. area are complicated.
In both D.C. and Virginia, recreational marijuana is legal to possess and use — but not to sell. In Maryland, on the other hand, it is fully legal with a regulated retail market that continues to expand.
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While recreational marijuana is legal to possess and use in D.C., selling it remains illegal, and businesses accused of ignoring that law are paying the price. Read More
