Announcements will be made on Friday regarding the five locations in which residents in Washington, D.C. can obtain medical marijuana. The nation’s capital joins 16 other states in the country that have made the use of marijuana legal for medical purposes. Under the law, which was approved by Congress in 2010, doctors can write recommendations for the use of marijuana by those who suffer HIV/AIDS, cancer, glaucoma, multiple sclerosis, and other serious conditions.
Steve DeAngelo, a District native and executive director of Harbor Side Health Center in Oakland, CA, the largest medical marijuana dispensary in the nation, reported that D.C.’s bill contained serious flaws. DeAngelo says that the D.C. initiative “provided that patients would be able to grow their own medicine.” This is essential for those “having dealt with illnesses [who]are in positions of economic distress and simply cannot afford to purchase cannabis from a dispensary.” Marijuana has not been approved by the FDA, therefore, doctors can only write recommendations for pain, not prescribe it. Five official locations will be announced, but 10 in D.C. are authorized to grow cannabis. Medical marijuana is to only be used in the patient’s home and cannot be used in the dispensaries or public places. A patient is allowed two ounces maximum at a time.
