The D.C. Department of Health will release applications for marijuana cultivation centers Monday, the next step in the district’s tortoise-paced journey in providing medical marijuana. The District first voted to allow medical marijuana in 1998 but was blocked by Congress from doing so. In 2009 Congress lifted its ban, and now, 13 years after first approving it, marijuana proponents expect patients to be able to buy the drug starting in May 2012.
More than 100 people will compete for the 10 cultivation center slots starting Monday, according to district officials. DOH is expected to pick the 10 winners by December.
The city will also award five other permits for marijuana dispensaries from which the medicinal pot will be sold. The cultivation centers and dispensaries must be separate by D.C. law.
Though the cultivation centers are expected to be lucrative, they will be complicated to set up, and some say many hopefuls will ultimately drop out of the race to open one — the application fee alone is $5,000.
“It’s pretty involved, and it’s going to require real motivation to put in a competent application that scores 200 points out of the 250 possible points,” said Montgomery Blair Sibley, who hopes to open a cultivation center on New York Avenue Northeast.
Cultivation centers will be judged based on several factors, including suitability of facilities, security and environmental plans.
Though it’s offering applications starting Monday, the Health Department is urging those interested in growing medical marijuana to hold off applying until Friday, when new rules for the cultivation centers and dispensaries will be issued.
Some are wondering what’s taking so long for D.C. to actually implement medical marijuana laws. Drug proponents staged a rally outside the John A. Wilson Building last week to protest the city’s slow pace.
“The patients of the District have waited longer than any other citizens in America for their ballot-approved medical cannabis,” medical marijuana advocate Nikolas Schiller said.
And everyone involved, from D.C. regulators to would-be cultivators, is wondering how issues with the federal government will work out. The Justice Department in June declared that medical marijuana shops would violate federal law, no matter what the District’s law says.
Sibley has already filed a lawsuit against federal officials claiming that any government opposition to medical marijuana would contradict Congress’ decision to lift the D.C. ban and allow medical marijuana in the District.
