Pubdate: Sat, 7 Aug 2010
Source: Washington Post (DC)
Page: B01
Copyright: 2010 The Washington Post Company
Contact: http://mapinc.org/url/mUgeOPdZ
Website: http://www.washingtonpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/49
Author: Mike DeBonis, Washington Post Staff Writer
Referenced: Draft rules http://mapinc.org/url/CV2wnLd3
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?253 (Cannabis - Medicinal - U.S.)

LIQUOR REGULATORS MAY HELP OVERSEE D.C. MEDICAL MARIJUANA PROGRAM

District liquor regulators will play a lead role in the city's new 
medical marijuana program when it debuts Jan. 1, according to draft 
rules issued Friday by Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D).

Under the regulations, the city health department would be 
responsible for registering legal marijuana users. But the licensing 
and oversight of the facilities that will grow and distribute medical 
cannabis would be handled by the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board and 
its enforcement arm, the Alcoholic Beverage Regulation 
Administration. The prospect of having the same regulators overseeing 
medical marijuana and liquor stores concerns advocates who have 
fought to have cannabis recognized as a medical treatment, not just 
as a drug for recreational use.

Last year, Congress removed a longstanding budget restriction that 
prevented city officials from implementing a medical-marijuana 
initiative that voters passed in 1998. City policymakers since have 
moved to create a tightly regulated system that would forestall 
future congressional interference.

Wayne Turner, who co-wrote the 1998 initiative, said Friday that he 
was glad to see the city move forward but was "completely blindsided" 
by the role of alcohol regulators. "Dispensaries are the front line, 
and the liquor board is completely inappropriate to run this 
program," he said. "Are we talking about medical marijuana Jell-O shots here?"

Turner's concerns were echoed, in somewhat less alarming terms, by 
D.C. Council member David A. Catania (I-At Large), who said his 
"preference" would be to have the health department, which regulates 
pharmacies, oversee the program.

But Attorney General Peter J. Nickles said Friday that the liquor 
regulators are most ready for the challenge of overseeing a new and 
potentially troublesome program. "They do a terrific job in 
enforcement and inspection," he said. "It was my impression in 
talking to them that they could do this job."

Charles Brodsky, chairman of the alcohol board, said the challenge of 
regulating marijuana is more analogous to alcohol than to 
prescription drugs. "We oversee a highly regulated product in the 
stream of commerce, and I think we do it pretty well," he said, 
adding that he and other board officials had spent "hundreds of 
hours" researching regulations from across the country.

Nickles added that having the liquor agency handle the program is the 
most cost-effective option because it has a corps of administrators 
and inspectors already in place.

The program could be a major revenue generator for an ailing city 
budget. As many as five dispensaries would pay $10,000 per year to 
register; up to 10 "cultivation centers," allowed to grow 95 plants 
at a time, would pay $5,000 per year. In addition, certain corporate 
officials would be required to pay a $200 annual registration fee. 
Managers would pay $150 and employees $75.

Yearly registration as a medical marijuana user or caregiver would 
cost $100; those earning less than twice the federal poverty level, 
or about $22,000, would pay $25 and would be eligible for subsidized 
marijuana on a sliding scale. Cultivators and dispensaries would be 
required to devote 2 percent of their revenue to those subsidies.

The regulatory framework, laid out in an eight-page executive order 
and 87 pages of administrative rules, describes the cultivation, 
distribution and transportation of legal marijuana in great detail. 
Under the proposed regulations:

. Doctors prescribing marijuana must be in a "bona fide 
physician-patient relationship with the qualifying patient" and must 
have done a physical examination no more than 90 days before 
prescribing marijuana.

. Licensed users would be able to use medical marijuana only in their 
homes or a medical facility where they reside, if the facility approved.

. No doctor would be allowed to locate an office at a dispensary, and 
dispensaries would be prohibited from marketing themselves to doctors.

. Owners of marijuana businesses must be determined to be "of good 
character" and must not have been convicted of any felony or 
drug-related misdemeanor.

. Dispensaries and cultivators must obtain approval for a security 
plan, must install a comprehensive video recording system, and cannot 
locate within 300 feet of a school or recreation center or within a 
residential area.

. Dispensaries would be prohibited from selling alcohol or engaging 
in any other type of business.

Much as the liquor board can immediately shutter a bar or nightclub, 
it would be able close a dispensary if it were causing "immediate 
danger to the health and safety of the public." The chief of police 
would be able to shut down a dispensary for 96 hours.

Nickles said the regulations were written with an eye toward avoiding 
the problems seen in other states -- especially California, where 
lawmakers are trying to rein in a medical marijuana industry 
estimated to generate about $2 billion a year in sales. Choosing the 
liquor board to oversee the industry, he said, was part of that.

Dan Riffle, a lobbyist who tracks national cannabis trends for the 
Marijuana Policy Project, an advocacy group, called the role of a 
liquor board in the District's proposed framework "novel." But, he 
said, "I'm not so much concerned with who is doing the regulating as 
what's in the regulations."

Turner said that when Congress is involved, the "who" matters.

"It gives our opponents, especially on Capitol Hill, reason to shut 
us down," he said. "They'll say, 'This isn't about patients, it's the 
liquor board doing it.' "

Catania was optimistic that the program might be modified during a 
45-day review period, now underway.

"Generally speaking, I'm pleased," he said. 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake