D.C. residents have been supportive of medical marijuana for quite some time. In 1998 voters passed a ballot initiative that would have created a medical cannabis program for the district. Republican-led efforts, however, prevented the law from going into effect until the ban was lifted in 2009. The city’s first dispensaries opened in 2013.

The program began with a very strict qualifying conditions list that kept the programs enrollment number low. In January of 2015, the program was vastly expanded to allow patients with various debilitating conditions to use medical cannabis. Since these loosened restrictions in the district’s medical marijuana, industry has been booming.

How do get Medical Marijuana in Washington D.C.?

You must be one of DC’s qualifying medical cannabis patients. All qualifying patients have the right to receive and use weed for medical purposes. Patients will first need to receive a signed written recommendation from their primary physician stating the use of pot is medically necessary or the patient’s treatment of a debilitating medical condition.

What Conditions Qualify for Medical Marijuana in D.C.?

In Washington D.C. any debilitating condition can qualify for medical marijuana. There is no specific list of qualifying conditions. You just need a D.C. doctor to assert that you have a debilitating condition that can be treated with medical cannabis.

Where Can I Find a Medical Marijuana Doctor in D.C.?

Any Washington D.C. licensed doctor registered with the districts medical cannabis program will be able to recommend marijuana to patients with debilitating conditions. However, just because physicians have the ability to recommend marijuana to their patients doesn’t mean they will. Some are refusing to recommend marijuana because it is still federally illegal. Rather find out which physicians are friendly towards medical cannabis and go see them.

Are There Any Dispensaries in Washington D.C.?

Dispensaries became operational in DC about three years ago.. There are currently five open dispensaries. Dispensaries in DC are allowed to grow up to 500 plants on site. Both non-profit and for-profit organizations can open up dispensaries in Washington D.C. Some states also have delivery services, which the District of Columbia still has to obtain.

What Can Patients Find at a Washington D.C. Dispensary?

Medical marijuana is available in all of its forms at D.C. dispensaries. There are marijuana flowers, concentrates, edibles, drinks and even topical creams available to DC patients.

Are D.C. Patients Protected From Discrimination?

Patients carrying two ounces or less cannot be prosecuted by state law enforcement. Government employees can still be fired for using medical cannabis because it is still considered federally illegal. Workers may be terminated for being under the influence of medical marijuana at work. Medical marijuana employees rights in DC and many other states are currently in a gray area.

Future of DC’s Medical Marijuana Program:

More dispensaries are expected to open shortly. The employee’s rights laws need to be updated to match the district’s current stance on medical cannabis.

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As of March 2016, the price of legal marijuana in Washington was $9.32 per gram, according to the Washington Post, citing data from the state’s Liquor and Cannabis board. The wholesale price was $2.99 per gram.

According to a report from KUOW News, in September 2014, pot was selling for about $25 per gram. By August 2015, the price on marijuana dropped by more than 50% to $11 per gram.

According to Steve Davenport of the Pardee RAND Graduate School, who helps aggregate data from the Washington’s cannabis board, prices went up after the drug was legalized but that the surge was linked to increased demand and limited supply. Since then, prices have been coming down at a rate of 2% per month, he told the Post, and they could possibly shrink 25% every year.

Professor Jonathan Caulkins, of Carnegie Mellon University, who works with Davenport, told the newspaper, “It’s just a plant.” He said the drug could become so inexpensive that certain types might be given away for free.

“There will always be the marijuana equivalent of organically grown specialty crops sold at premium prices to yuppies, but at the same time, no-frills generic forms could become cheap enough to give away as a loss leader – the way bars give patrons beer nuts and hotels leave chocolates on your pillow,” he said.

The news out of Washington State has been echoed in Colorado, another state where marijuana is completely legal. In June 2015, an eight of an ounce of cannabis (roughly 3.6 grams) cost between $30 and $45 – notably less than the $50-$70 it was going for the previous year.

As prices on marijuana is on a downward trend, there could be positive and negative consequences for states. Since cannabis is taxed by sale, falling prices mean each sale results in fewer income for the state government. On the other hand, cheap marijuana could end up getting more people to stick with purchasing legal pot instead of risking the black market. Fewer drugs moved illegally, could mean fewer costs for law enforcement.

Even though pot prices clearly fell last year, new businesses continued to be established, according to KUOW.

“The fact that prices are falling, and people are still entering the business – it’s confusing to me,” Tracey Seslen, an economics lecturer at the University of Washington’s Foster School of Business told KUOW. “Standard theories of economics would only suggest entry into an industry when people see that it’s profitable.”

Perhaps one reason that people keep trying to enter the marijuana business is that it’s becoming easier to do so. Over the past two years, the number of banks and credit unions willing to do business with cannabis shops increased from 51 in March 2014 to over 300.

Although federal law still prohibits banks from handling cash derived from marijuana trade, the Treasure Department has stated that it will not go after banks if they are certain that businesses are complying with state marijuana regulations.

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The mass protest, led by DCMJ, a D.C.-based marijuana groups whose activists could be seen wearing distinctive, smurf-like ski hats, called on President Obama to take marijuana off the list of Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act. This classification given to the “most dangerous drugs” by the federal government puts marijuana in the same place as heroin, baths salts an LSD, allowing it to be prosecuted aggressively.

At around 4:20 p.p Eastern Time, which was chosen with the number 420 associated with weed, the protesters lit up their joints, fired up their bowls and pulled on their vaporizers in unison with little disruption from the Secret Service or the local police force. A 51-foot plastic inflatable joint was unveiled with the message “Obama, deschedule cannabis now” that was specifically made by artists for the occasion.

A founder of DCMJ and leader of the 2014 campaign to legalize recreational marijuana in D.C., Adam Eidinger, said that law enforcement initially refused to let the inflatable joint into Lafayette Square Park, but they were able to circumvent them by smuggling it in deflated and then inflating it into the park.

“Eidinger joked, “Just like good stoners everywhere, we snuck a 51-foot join, past the Secret Service.

Smoking in public is still illegal in the district, despite a November 2014 vote to legalize it. It remains illegal on federal land, including Lafayette Square Park and the pedestrian street in front of it, under any circumstances. Eidinger expected for arrests to be made and even publicly expressed his readiness to be arrested for the cause.

However, according to Eidinger, he had not heard of any arrests, though some police citations were issued.

It was clear, however, that the D.C. police offers mostly turned a blind eye to public marijuana consumption. Several motorcycle-bound officers provided an escort for the group to march on K Street NW following the protect, during which many demonstrators smoked openly. “Legalize It”, Peter Tosh’s cannabis anthem blared from speakers as the parade went forward.

The march ended at the corner of K Street NW and Vermont Avenue, where protest organizers had attached a mock jail cell to the trailer post of an SUV in protest of the incarceration of marijuana smokers. A sign above the mock jail cell said “Jail Is Not A Drug Policy” in bed red letters.

Obama has the constitutional authority to remove marijuana from Schedule I without the need for congressional approval. Switching it to Schedule III, for example, would allow marijuana businesses in states where the drug is legal to deduct business expenses, and restore access to student loans and public housing for convicted users, among other benefits according to Ilya Shapiro, a legal scholar at the libertarian Cato Institute.

Eidinger mentioned that if Hillary Clinton wants to ensure high turnout from Sanders’ supporters in the general election, endorsing the reclassification of marijuana would be a good way to do so.

“As a Bernie supporter, I do want to see a united Democratic Party, but you gotta give us something — this is like in the top three or four issues of Bernie supporters,” Eidinger said.

Sanders was the clearly the preferred candidate of rally attendees, many of whom wore “Bernie” pins and shirts.

Other cannabis activists described their involvement in down-ballot races. Zack Pesavento, 29, a veteran of the D.C legalization campaign, is president of 420 USA Super PAC, a Super PAC dedicated to electing pro-legalization members of congress. The group has plans to help unseat Rp. Andy Harris (R-Md), one of the fiercest opponents in Congress of Washington, D.C.’s attempts to legalize the substance.

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Law enforcement officers in Washington do not have a device to detect pot or any other drugs. They rely on their skills and standard field sobriety test. Across the country and around the world, a wide-range of machines are being developed and tested similar to Washington State University’s marijuana breathalyzer.

“Whether it’s measuring THC on the breath or in the saliva, some are looking at transdermal applications, so just measuring off of sweat from the body,” said Lt. Rob Sharpe with the Washington State Patrol.

Sharpe is the impaired driving section commander with WSP. He says, predominantly, saliva detection is being tested in different jurisdictions outside of Washington state. More than 125 troopers in Colorado are working with the new technology. WSP says there’s simply not enough science for state officials Washington to feel confident yet.

“If we’re going to adopt something in Washington, we want to make sure it’s very reliable accurate and doesn’t suffer from false positives or false negatives that could occur,” said Sharpe.

Under the current procedures, a warrant must be requested before a blood draw following a DUI arrest. WSP say that will continue to happen even if the new technology is adopted by the state.

WSP has a full-time librarian collecting studies from around the world on new testing mechanisms that could work well for troopers in the Evergreen State.

“Right now we’re just waiting on validation of these test devices and then we’ll make a determination after that for their accuracy, precision and reliability,” said Sharpe.

WSP says it doesn’t see a front-runner among new technology, yet, and there is no timeline on when troopers could be carrying new testing machines.

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