Washington D.C – Over a year after The District legalized Medical Marijuana, there is still no program, no dispensaries, no patients, and no plants. Health department officials believe they can have a program running by May 2012 though.
Even with the new message from the Justice Department, D.C. officials keep working on a program. “This is a very complicated process,” said D.C. Health Director Mohammad N. Akhter. “The community should be very pleased that we are moving forward with this and are doing things in a way that will make sure the program will be here to stay.
Delays have been caused by numerous changes to the program including Mayor Vincent Gray’s (D) decision to have the Health Department run the application process. “Once you move something like this, you need to do new rules and regulations and it needs to go to the council,” Akhter said. “Considering all of those things, it has moved very expeditiously.”
Early investors, advocate organizations, and potential patients are complaining because of the slow pace. Nikolas Schiller’s group D.C. Patients’ Cooperative, identified potential cultivation and dispensary sites in the city after the law passed. Concerned about the program’s pace, the cooperative did not sign any leases, and many of those sites are no longer available. Schiller, the only paid staff member, was laid off by the group’s investors.
Even with the slow pace, patients and advisors think that the May deadline might not be met either. The original deadline was July 27 of this year.
The Washington Times is reporting that the city will begin accepting formal applications to grow and dispense medical marijuana on August 5th, and candidates must get their applications in by September 9th.
Earlier this year, the D.C. Department of Health received 170 letters of intent — 64 for dispensaries and 106 for cultivation centers — from more than 80 separate entities, said agency Director Dr. Mohammad Akhter. City agencies vetted the letters of intent Tuesday, disqualifying 14 dispensary letters and 18 cultivation letters, Dr. Akhter said. That leaves 50 dispensary and 88 cultivation candidates to vying for five and 10 permits, respectively.
Final decisions regarding the approved dispensaries and cultivation licenses will be made by the end of the year.
(Sources: The Washington Post, The 420 Times)
Have you ever lost hope? Have you ever been prescribed so many conventional drugs you thought you’d lose your mind in the aftermath of serious side effects? Well, we have been there. Our autistic daughter was so close to death, days away from a tube placed in her stomach to help her eat, we thought this would be the end of her. Then someone suggested trying medical cannabis. We were flabbergasted. Disgusted. No way would we try this hippie party drug for our daughter. But that was before we saw her drop so many pounds, she was about to die. That was before her behaviors (running into walls and slamming head into concrete) was at its worst and nobody, not even experts, could help her. So, with much caution, we tried it. It didn’t work right away, but within a few weeks, at one cookie a day, we saw a lot of change. She was eating. She gained enough weight for docs to reconsider tube feeding. She was happy. She’s never been happy. It’s no cure, but it certainly has been better than strong drugs that left our daughter thinnner, more upset and up all night. I’d say this is an autism therapy that deserves more attention. More support, and be made available, free, covered by insurances, to help the autistics who are about to die.