The District, District, District
Pat, Wee, Mary Jane, Blout, Bud, Cronut, Gondja, Cannabis, Marijuana
115,050 votes. That's how many District of Columbia residents voted in favor of a marijuana legalization ballot initiative in November.
Cannabis is now legal to consume and grow within your own house within the District.
The new law has been in effect for some time now, but the conversation about weed is sparking up in new ways.
My name is Adam Einiger and I'm the proposer of Initiative 71.
Adam is no stranger to the DC political scene since arriving to the city in 1992.
He's even ran for the shadow senator position on numerous occasions.
Thank you, Monsanto. Thank you, Elizabeth Warren.
Too many votes are being sold in this building. See, might as well bring it out in the open.
It had been important to me for a long time because I was a marijuana user and I knew a lot of other marijuana users
and we were all acting like criminals for most of our lives while using marijuana.
So we didn't want to be criminals anymore. We didn't want to be oppressed, be afraid of being arrested.
And that's what really motivated me.
We managed to get every single elected city council member to endorse Initiative 71.
The mayor endorsed Initiative 71. The mayor successfully defended it and saw its implementation.
I'm Carl Racine. I'm the first elected Attorney General of the District of Columbia.
The Office of Attorney General was asked to review Initiative 71,
an initiative that was passed by over 70% of the voters of the District of Columbia.
That initiative proposed to make legal the possession and use of marijuana up to two ounces in a private house.
DC residents like to have a criminal justice system that treats people equally.
And the fact that there were disparities in arrest, in prosecutions and in sentences for folks of color
who were charged with marijuana prosecution was a big reason why Initiative 71 passed.
There is a growing consensus, particularly among young people, that marijuana need not be criminalized anymore.
Even though Initiative 71 has passed, there are still seeds of discontent.
Many stem from the cannabis business community. The sale of weed is still illegal in DC.
Business owners and users have to find new ways to navigate the dank in cloudy haze.
Cory Barnett.
Now that cannabis is actually legal, what we're really talking about is the taxation and the regulation of cannabis.
And right now we exist in a marketplace where cannabis is, for the most part, unregulated in the district.
You look at the business side of the cannabis industry in Washington DC,
what we're seeing is that there's a tremendous amount of interest for one.
Secondarily, these are brand new entrepreneurs. This is one of the few industries that I can think of that's come along in the last 20, 30, maybe even 40 or 50 years,
where, you know, literally if you have the ability to make a product that can be infused with cannabis in any way, shape, or form,
then you have the opportunity to really get that product to the marketplace.
Kyla Hill, owner, creator and CEO at Get Him Butter.
At Get Him Butter we produce CBD-infused topicals that can be used for everything.
People aren't really receptive to the idea of hemp being that is related to the cannabis family.
Having a CBD product that's so new and having so many different definitions of what it is, FDA calling in a new drug,
the DEA considering anything from the flower or the leaf marijuana, which isn't the case.
Remember, the federal government still has marijuana on schedule one.
Therefore, it is an illegal narcotic. It's still the case that in places like Colorado and in Oregon,
those legal businesses are still hampered in their ability to use the U.S. banking system for their legal business.
One of those things that you have to disclose to the bank upfront, you know, what your business is that you're dealing with hemp or cannabis,
and they have the right to deny you.
Family. That's been the theme here in the DMV community.
Without support, some battles may seem too great, but with family, there is light at the end of the block.
Our stores were raided and shut down in October of 2011.
It was pretty traumatic experience. You know, two stores with six employees were arrested that night along with a customer.
While we were facing criminal prosecution, we continued to sell, and when the public realized this, they came through for us,
and our sales were very strong, and it helped pay over $50,000 in legal bills.
A conviction, be it for misdemeanor or a felony, has serious repercussions.
Just because weed is legal doesn't mean the use of it or the sale of merchandise is safe everywhere.
My name is Davis Clayton Keough. I'm the owner and founder of Meister High End Accessories.
About a month ago, Montgomery County police came in and raided our store in Maryland.
They took all of our inventory, arrested me and my employees, charged me with three felonies, charged my employees with felonies.
Basically shut down the whole business, and the whole reason they did this is because we were selling CBD oil,
which is derived from organic hemp, and is actually federally legal.
Right now what we're doing is we're giving away seeds, we're raising funds to cover the legal fees for me and my employees.
There's a huge amount of support in D.C., and it's completely legal in D.C., but even right outside in Virginia and Maryland,
the cops are still coming after people and still arresting people for this stuff.
With the proverbial tile removed from the bottom of the door, the future is promising in D.C., but there are still hurdles.
We've read a lot in the District of Columbia over the last year about the hazards of synthetic cannabinoids.
Oftentimes called K2, Bizarro, oftentimes packaged in colorful packaging to entice young people to smoke it, is not marijuana and should not be confused.
It's adult use in the home only, and this just isn't fair to tens of thousands of marijuana users in the city
that live in housing that prevents them from doing it at home lawfully.
That's the new discrimination that's coming with marijuana policy.
It's discrimination. It's predominantly low-income African-Americans that are affected.
Now, I know 50-year-old women that have serious diseases, that are living in public housing, that are part of the medical program,
and every time they use cannabis, they have a near-panic attack that they're going to get thrown out of their public housing.
It just isn't right.
Unfortunately, on the business side, we're seeing that not very many minorities, be they Hispanic, Asian, or African-American,
are coming out of the woodworks and actually joining the entrepreneurial ranks.
This is an industry that I really think particularly African-Americans should take a very hard look at,
because there's one, there's a tremendous amount of opportunity there.
Two, we have the opportunity to rebuild our communities by creating jobs in this space and creating opportunities in this space,
and I would caution every young brother or sister that's out there to really take a hard look at the opportunities being created in this industry.
