D.C. Lawmakers Approve Medical Marijuana Bill With License Cap Elimination, Patient Self-Certification And Tax Relief
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Washington, D.C. lawmakers have advanced an amended bill to fundamentally reshape the District’s medical marijuana program—including by eliminating cannabis business licensing caps, providing tax relief to operators, further promoting social equity and creating new regulated business categories such as on-site consumption facilities and cannabis cooking classes. The District Council’s Committee on Business and Economic Development approved the legislation—which would also codify that adults can self-certify as medical marijuana patients—on Tuesday. This comes about a month after an earlier version cleared a different panel. The main components of the bill, which is being carried by Council Chairman Phil Mendelson (D) on behalf of Mayor Muriel Bowser (D), have stayed intact. But provisions dealing with issues such as licensing enforcement and the tax code were revised ahead of Tuesday’s committee markup.

The Medical Cannabis Amendment Act now heads to the Committee of the Whole before potentially receiving final sign-off by the District Council. “The public and voters have decided that they want to see a different framework in the District of Colombia,” the committee chairman, Councilmember Kenyan McDuffie (D), said on Tuesday. “We’ve done that over the years, and this is just one additional step where we’re trying to fulfill those commitments to both the initiatives and laws that we pass in the District of Columbia around medical cannabis.” Another component of the legislation would empower officials to crack down on “gifting” operators that sell non-cannabis items in exchange for “free” marijuana products. The aim is to encourage those businesses to become part of the legal and regulated market by taking advantage of the new licensing opportunities. Lawmakers have gone back and forth over how to most effectively revise D.C.’s licensing rules, with the as-introduced version of the legislation proposing a higher cap on dispensaries than is allowed under current law…

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Source : D.C. Lawmakers Approve Medical Marijuana Bill With License Cap Elimination, Patient Self-Certification And Tax Relief

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