Medical Marijuana on Georgia Avenue?
One of the more interesting topics to be discussed at Wednesday’s (9/8/10) ANC1A meeting in a while was that of medical marijuana and the question of a dispensary on Georgia Avenue.
According to information shared at the meeting, ANC1A08 Commissioner Cliff Valenti was contacted a few weeks ago by an individual seeking feedback on the appropriateness of a dispensary for medical marijuana located on Lower Georgia Avenue. Most 1A commissioners indicated that they had not been monitoring this issue closely prior to this contact. Valenti additionally indicated that the caller seemed to be feeling out the neighborhood’s response as a result of Takoma Park’s resistance to a dispensary in their community.
There was general agreement and concern from the commissioners that Georgia Avenue was not an appropriate location for a marijuana dispensary, and concern that the current rules proposed for the management of the District’s new medical marijuana program, which will take effect January 1, 2011, weren’t sufficient. Several commissioners also expressed concern over impacts on crime and safety around dispensaries, citing increased crime around dispensaries in Denver, Colorado, and Sacramento, California.
A couple of advocates for medical marijuana spoke in defense of dispensaries, expressing the problems in Denver and Sacramento had more to do with inadequate oversight rather than the dispensaries themselves. One speaker stated that the situation in Oakland, California, would make a better comparison to conditions within the District due to population size, level of poverty, and prevalence of crime. Valenti responded that Oakland’s crime was worse than the District’s and that he wouldn’t use that city as a model for Washington.
While there was a clear division of opinion on the validity of marijuana’s medicinal value, there was a pragmatic acceptance that it will be a reality in the District. Commissioner LaKeisha Thomas did make it clear, however, that it is still Federally illegal.
Where there was strongest agreement among all parties was that the Alcoholic Beverage Regulation Administration (ABRA) was the wrong agency to be given regulatory authority. Since marijuana, in this case, is to be dispensed medicinally, all agreed that the correct agency should be the Department of Health. Giving ABRA oversight tends to make a comparison between marijuana and alcohol, thus emphasizing marijuana’s recreational use.
Responding to an open period for comment, ANC1A will be sending a letter to the Office of the Attorney General with recommendations addressing weaknesses they’ve identified in the DC law regarding oversight of a patient’s caregiver, transportation of marijuana, and locations of dispensaries.
In short, recommendations included the following:
Caregivers: must be registered with the Department of Heath and be recommended by a physician.
Transportation: must be in a sealed container, labeled with patients name and other data, and transported directly from dispensary to patient’s home. Those transporting marijuana must also have a permit to do so.
Location: commissioners are asking that dispensaries not be within 500 feet (not the 300 feet proposed) of schools or recreation centers. Additionally, the commissioners recommend that dispensaries not be within 500 feet of substance abuse treatment centers, halfway houses, and day care centers.
Tags: Crime, drugs, Georgia Avenue corridor, health care
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Park View, D.C. 
September 10, 2010 at 4:32 pm
All of your concerns have already been addressed in the writing of the law. Stop Whinning. This is a done deal. Remember there are real people who need this medicine… hehehe.
Georgia Avenue is a centrally located, easy to get to spot.
Bring it on.
September 11, 2010 at 9:03 am
I’m fine with people who need pot for legitimate medical reasons getting it. Doesn’t change the fact that I don’t want a ‘dispensary’ (read: pot store) in my neighborhood. This isn’t because it’s illegal–as you say, it’s not. But I wouldn’t be thrilled about a XXX book store, another strip club, another check cashing place, or OTB coming to the neighborhood either. All of these businesses are perfectly legal but would move the neighborhood in the wrong direction and likely contribute to crime in the neighborhood and high vacancy rates in retail spaces.
And anyway Georgia Avenue already has enough drug dealers. Don’t really see the need for one more.
October 4, 2010 at 1:18 pm
You don’t see any need for sick people to have aq safe place to purchase their medicine?
It really does drive me mad that there are people who think that the possibility of someone malingering and diverting medicine to recreational use is more important than getting medicine to those who need it.
You have no basis to conclude that dispensaries will ‘increase’ or ‘attract’ crime. The police in Los Angeles, Sacramento, Denver and Colorado Springs have all studied the issue and said it just isn’t true.
Oakland CA specifically credits the medical cannabis vendors and related business for the gentrification of their Oaksterdam neighborhood.
Regardless, it’s idiocy to compare dispensaries to stores for perverts or check cashing/payday loans vendors. I understand you’ve been lied to for as long as you’ve been alive that results in this belief, but it doesn’t make that fiction reality.
Serious question, do you think we should base public policy on bald faced lies, half truths, and hysterical rhetoric generated by irrational fear? For some reason I think that the truth is most important thing to consider.
September 11, 2010 at 7:44 pm
A movement in the wrong direction for the neighborhood–legal or not.
September 13, 2010 at 11:03 am
I also don’t think this is the type of new Georgia Avenue retail we should be rallying behind. It doesn’t have my personal support.
September 21, 2010 at 6:04 pm
It seems many people support medical marijuana worldwide, it is important that people are educated about the benefits/pros/cons of marijuana before disregarding it.
February 11, 2011 at 7:08 am
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