During the week of 4/20, Washington D.C. officials are providing a tax holiday for medical cannabis patients and retailers, NBC 4 Washington reports. Officials hope to attract patients back to the District’s seven medical cannabis dispensaries, which say they face stiff competition from the city’s “gray” adult-use market.
“Through Sunday, [April] 24th, the 6% sales tax is waived,” said Fred Moosally, director of D.C.’s Alcoholic Beverage Regulation Administration (ABRA). “This is the first time in the District this holiday has ever happened.”
Moosally explained that also through April 24, patients could get a two-year card for free and that the doctor’s recommendation requirement would be waived for patients 65-or-older, allowing them instead to self-certify. The tax holiday is open to medical cannabis patients from other states like Florida, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia, NBC 4 notes.
Washington D.C. passed an adult-use cannabis initiative in 2014 that made it legal to possess, cultivate, and gift small amounts of cannabis in the District. However, the city has so far been blocked by the federal government from establishing its own regulated cannabis market — in fact, the Biden Administration opted in March to include a legislative rider in its budget approval that prevents the implementation of adult-use sales. The ongoing obstruction has led to a gray market that retails cannabis under the guise of “gifting.”
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