6146422 Resolution 21-554, Medical Marijuana Cultivation Center Expansion Congressional Review Emergency Declaration Resolution of 2016

A RESOLUTION

                                                        

21-554

 

IN THE COUNCIL OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

 

July 12, 2016        

 

                                                                                                                                             

To declare the existence of an emergency, due to congressional review, with respect to the need to amend the Legalization of Marijuana for Medical Treatment Initiative of 1999 to allow a holder of a cultivation center registration that owns or has a valid lease for the real property adjacent to its existing cultivation center to expand its facility into that adjacent real property for purposes of increasing production of marijuana plants not to exceed the authorized limit, and to increase the number of living plants a cultivation center may possess at any time to 1000.

 

            RESOLVED, BY THE COUNCIL OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, That this resolution may be cited as the "Medical Marijuana Cultivation Center Expansion Congressional Review Emergency Declaration Resolution of 2016".

 

            Sec. 2. (a) Enactment of the Medical Marijuana Cultivation Center Expansion Emergency Amendment Act of 2016, effective May 19, 2016 (D.C. Act 21-396; 63 DCR 7908) (“Emergency Act”), enables the District to increase the number of live marijuana plants to assuage the demand for medical marijuana in medical marijuana distribution centers.

(b)  The District is currently experiencing higher demand for medical marijuana than there is capacity to produce.

(c) The Emergency Act enables existing cultivation centers to expand the size of their facilities when they have leaseholds for adjacent real property. 

(d)  The Emergency Act also authorizes the possession of up to a maximum of 1000 live marijuana plants for all cultivation centers. 

(e) New congressional review emergency legislation is necessary to prevent a gap in the law between the expiration of the Emergency Act, which expires on August 17, 2016, and the effectiveness of temporary legislation, the Medical Marijuana Cultivation Center Expansion Temporary Amendment Act of 2016, enacted on June 29, 2016 (D.C. Act 21-431; 63 DCR 9282), which has yet to become law.

 

            Sec. 3. The Council of the District of Columbia determines that the circumstances enumerated in section 2 constitute emergency circumstances making it necessary that the

Medical Marijuana Cultivation Center Expansion Congressional Review Emergency Amendment Act of 2016 be adopted after a single reading.

            Sec. 4. This resolution shall take effect immediately.