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A RESOLUTION
20-573
IN THE COUNCIL OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
July 14, 2014
To declare the existence of an emergency with the respect to the need amend, on an emergency basis, the Legalization of Marijuana for Medical Treatment Initiative of 1998 to expand the definition of a qualifying medical condition to allow physicians to determine whether a patient would benefit from medical marijuana treatment and to increase the number of living plants medical marijuana cultivation centers can possess at any time.
RESOLVED, BY THE COUNCIL OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, That this resolution may be cited as the “Medical Marijuana Expansion Emergency Declaration Resolution of 2014”.
Sec. 2. (a) In 2010, the Council passed the Legalization of Marijuana for Medical Treatment Initiative of 1998, effective February 25, 2010 (D.C. Law 13-315; D.C. Official Code § 7-1671.01 et seq.), in order to “ensure that the cultivation, distribution, possession, and use of medical marijuana is properly regulated.”
(b) Four years later, the District’s medical marijuana program has only 452 registered patients.
(c) On October 21, 2013, during a Committee on Health public roundtable on the medical marijuana program and how the program can be improved 2 primary suggestions emerged from that discussion: (1) Expanding the list of qualifying conditions and (2) Allowing cultivation centers to possess more living marijuana plants.
(d) Current law severely limits the qualifying conditions, leaving many District residents suffering unnecessarily from significant pain, seizures, and numerous other conditions that are alleviated by medical marijuana use.
(e) The current limits on the number of plants impede cultivators’ ability to provide medical marijuana to patients in a manner other than smoking.
(f) A joint hearing was held on June 12, 2014, between the Committee on the Judiciary and Public Safety and the Committee on Health. There was only one public witness who spoke in opposition to the legislation and the Executive was supportive.
(g) On July 1, 2014, the Judiciary Committee marked up the combined bills and favorably approved them.
(h) In light of the significant time for permanent legislation to work its way through the congressional review period and the wrenching testimony of witnesses on conditions they are experiencing, this emergency is necessary to put an immediate halt to the suffering many of our residents currently experience.
(i) Approval of the emergency legislation will allow expansion of the medical marijuana program to proceed over the summer.
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 Expansion Emergency Amendment Act of 2014 be adopted after a single reading.
Sec. 4. This resolution shall take effect immediately.
