It’s been a long, long wait for medical marijuana in the nation’s capital. Fourteen years after District of Columbia voters approved a referendum authorizing medical cannabis, no patients have yet obtained access to marijuana through D.C.’s program.
The bulk of the delays can be pinned on Congress, which for years blocked funding to implement a medical marijuana program authorized by the local referendum. But after that appropriations obstacle was removed in 2009, D.C. officials began a three-year regulatory process to design and implement the program.
As DCist reports, the endless delays could soon be over:
That will change early next year, as a torturous three-year-long regulatory process comes to an end and licensed cultivation centers and dispensaries finally open their doors to patients, potentially as early as February. Advocates of the program have certainly heard these promises before, but this time it seems more like a reality—the city’s first cultivation center (of six licensed earlier this year) was granted its certificate of occupancy yesterday, and various dispensaries are waiting final approvals from city officials.
– Read the entire article at The Huffington Post.
