The legality status of Marijuana across the entire United States has, for long, remained contentious. This is even as the overwhelming support for its legalization continues to push its edges among many nations. Some of the top known cities in the center of these struggles are New Jersey and New York. These two have gone to extents of evoking voter support towards the full legalization of weed In the US, but no, they haven’t succeeded yet.

So what is Washington DC position in this struggle? Well, weed is legal in DC. However, because of the Initiative 71 riders, it still confuses many whether it is legal or not. To learn more about these rules and regulations, you might want to continue reading.

Legality Status Of Weed in DC

If you are asking whether weed is legal in DC, a precise answer is yes, it is. What matters most after that are the I71 conditions. The very initial of them is that you must be 21 years and above to handle weed and its involved transactions.

Other parts of these regulations include the following;

·         You can only share weed but not sell or buy

·         You should avoid using marijuana in federal lands or properties: The federal government owns about 30% of DC. Among these are parks and some federal housings. In such places, you should avoid smoking or handling weed transactions.

·         Avoid more than two ounces of weed in public places

·         Consuming marijuana in public is prohibited. The law charges $25 for anyone found going against this.

·         Growing your own: Adults of 21+ years can grow only up to 6 weed plants, and only three should be flowering at any instance. Also, you are only allowed to plant weed in your private residential area.

·         You should not share more than weed more than one ounce. This rule applies as well to seeds. You only share seeds and seedlings as gifts.

It is out of all these strict legality concerns that now buyers and sellers of weed have formed a workaround tactic to handle the situation. Now, they give it either for free or as a gift whenever you buy another item. For instance, those selling t-shirts might add marijuana as a gift for any purchase.

DC has lots of these sellers/ online service deliveries, most of which offer great convenience for those in need of weed. Among these are;

·         Lucky Chukie

·         King Budz

·         Treading Leaf

·         Exotic blooms

·         District connect and a lot more

One most common of these supply channels are via the cannabis events. You will always learn of these events from social media advertisements. It is here that you request to receive your delivery.

Marijuana For Medicine

Even after initiative 71 passed in 2015, still, there were no clear legal guidelines on the use of cannabis for medical purposes. The congress, after that approval, took several years to accept the rules imposed around the medical weed. Finally, the District of Cannabis got fully operational after that.

However, none of these made it any easier to purchase medical cannabis in DC. The number of certified dispensaries is few, with the capability of serving only about 6000 patients. Meaning, in most cases, patients have to travel from one dispensary to the next.

Also, it is only lawful for a marijuana patient to accesses not more than two ounces per month. The selling dispensaries, however, do not offer it at any low rates but high a fact that discourages many users. Thus, in most cases, these patients resort to other market alternatives, such as recreational.

The only favoring bit of these cannabis rules is the fact that they allow none residential patients, those with certification to access the medicine.

Criminal Offenses Relating to Marijuana

Marijuana may be legal in DC; however, that does not mean you are free to use it anyway or anyhow as you’d please. The I71 guidelines are quite strict on the matter and impose legal charges for anyone who goes against them.

Some of these are;

·         Excess possession of weed

·         Weed selling

·         Public consumption

·         Handling weed in federal properties

·         Sharing of more than an ounce of weed

·         Growing more than six plants

·         Planting marijuana in public lands

These strict laws governing the use and handling of marijuana are the reason why most still doubt whether it is legal or not.

Hope For Legal Change

In DC,  marijuana fanatics and users remain hopeful that someday, weed use and handling will not have as many legal restrictions as there are now. Their framework on effecting this, however, is first ensuring the legalization of its marketplace.

In May 2019, DC’s mayor showed efforts in effecting this first step through the introduction of the Safe Cannabis Sales Act of 2019. This Act was to clear any sales taxations on cannabis products. By this, it allowed licensing of weed cultivators, manufacturers, as well as off-premise retailers.

The partial legalization of weed has instead introduced illegal marketing and sales channels. This route has sparkled lots of criminal activities and so much risked people’s lives. Few restrictions, especially on the sales of recreational weed, would bring in more tax for the district and reduce crime as well.

The 2019 Safe Cannabis Act by the major, however, faces a lot of federal opposition as part of the congress consider it illegal. They say it would be unlawful for DC to spend money in fighting for the legalization of weed.

Despite these backsets, still, there remains hope considering the legalization of banks to fund companies dealing in cannabis. This was in July. It, therefore, meant that if the banks could be allowed for such funding towards cannabis, then legal change on weed could be possible. They finally, withdraw the strict sales rules on marijuana and its products.

Final Thoughts

Even as weed remains legal in DC, many are still debating on whether it is for sure, owing to the I71 user regulations. The truth, however, is that weed causes detrimental ill-health impacts, especially when consumed irresponsibly, and that is a no-risk any state would want to make. No country wants her citizens to suffer psychic damages from irresponsive weed use.

As the fight continues between the state and the people on weed legalization status, there remains hope that one time, weed will be legal, though. Maybe then, the state will have got the best reasons as to why they should allow that.