D.C. residents are about to get their first hit of legal marijuana … sort of. But the medical marijuana dispensary in the nation’s capital points to a larger problem about a lack of federal government complacency in enforcing laws.
Three years after the D.C. Council unanimously approved a bill legalizing medical marijuana for the chronically ill (on 4/20 … seriously), Capital City Care, the city’s first licensed marijuana dispensary, is expected to open its doors to the public sometime this month.
In fact, Capital City Care began cultivating its marijuana plants in the District several weeks ago, proudly posting pictures of its “OK Kush” and “Blue Dream” marijuana strains on the dispensary’s Facebook page. There’s no word yet as to whether other, entirely legitimate-sounding, “medicines” (like Maui Wowie, Purple Urkle, or Presidential Green Crack) will also be made available!
Despite the welcome news for marijuana enthusiasts, it’s probably still too soon for D.C. residents to swarm local head shops to pick up their psychedelic tobacco pipes and bong. In fact, marijuana paraphernalia is illegal under DC law, but according to several knowledgeable sources who wished to remain anonymous, such tobacco smoking devices can also be used to smoke marijuana.
Unlike California, where just about anyone with $80 can get a marijuana prescription from “Doctor Kush” or one of his other cleverly named associates, Capital City Care Communications Director Scott Morgan insists the dispensary will operate under strict standards. “It’s not like faking a tummy ache to get out of school … HIV/AIDS, cancer, glaucoma, or severe muscle spasms are the only qualifying conditions,” Morgan told the The Huffington Post in February.
Fair enough, but there’s one other significant detail sure to burn out the hemp-wearing crowd: marijuana is still illegal under Federal law. Marijuana remains a Schedule I controlled substance under the Controlled Substances Act, which means that the drug “has no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States.” After a review of the subject in 2011, the Drug Enforcement Agency and the Department of Health and Human Services reaffirmed that finding. Bummer.
Although current Department of Justice guidelines do not urge prosecution of medicinal pot users with serious illnesses, the DOJ policy makes clear that people in the business of “cultivating, selling, or distributing marijuana” are subject to Federal enforcement action. Capital City Care’s owners acknowledge that their business is against the law, but considering the nearly $1 million already invested in the clinic, they don’t seem too concerned about it.
There are plenty of reasonable arguments on both sides of the marijuana legalization debate, but the current Federal policy, seemingly tacit approval of explicitly illegal activity, is a pretty half-baked way of governing the nation. When some laws become a joke, such as with the “Green Doctors” in California or the ridiculous “for tobacco use only” disclaimers in shops that sell drug paraphernalia, it breeds disrespect for all laws.
Now that marijuana will be openly bought and sold right under Congress’s nose (the clinic is literally down the street from the Capital building), it’s high time for the Federal government to either change the law or enforce it.
