Medical marijuana patients will likely have to wait until at least this fall before they can buy prescribed pot in the District, even as the controversial and lengthy preliminary approval of the business sites inched forward this month.
None of the District’s approved marijuana growing center operators has applied for a building permit since winning preliminary approval to do so, according to a review of the D.C. Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs’ permit applications.
That means growers are at least weeks away from actually registering with the Department of Health, the last step before they can start the process of cultivating marijuana. From there, experts say it takes three months — at the earliest — before a crop is ready to harvest.
“It usually takes three to six months [between setup and harvest], depending on the strain,” said Chris Conrad, an Oakland, Calif.-based medical marijuana consultant. “But sometimes the permitting and building itself can take six months to a year.”
In addition, the construction of warehouses in which the marijuana will be grown can take months.
“[It] really depends on the applicant, their plan for a build out and their timeline for completing the required business applications, and having their building ready for a pre-opening inspection,” Health Department spokeswoman Najma Roberts said in an email. “This includes all security and growing equipment set up for inspection.”
Last month, six growing sites in the District won preliminary approval from the Health Department, and last week four distribution centers also were tentatively approved. All the growers will be in Northeast while most of the distributors will be located in Northwest.
Preliminary approval allows the pot growers to apply for business licenses, building permits, certificates of occupancy and other regulatory requirements before construction starts. Once granted the permits, the growers would have to formally register with the Health Department before starting operations.
The medical marijuana facilities are beginning to advance after nearly two years of community meetings and political jockeying, including the approval of a moratorium on the number of centers that can located in one area, a move prompted by the desire of growers and distributors to move to large industrial tracts in Ward 5.
The D.C. Council approved up to 10 growing centers that would hold as many as 95 plants each and five distribution centers, or shops, in the city.
