Robert Celt
New Member
A months-long shortage of medical marijuana in the District has been eased in recent weeks by new growers moving into the city and a change in the law that doubled the number of plants producers can cultivate, according to buyers and suppliers.
The boost in supply has ended rationing and cut the price of cannabis for the 3,500 city residents legally allowed to buy it. During the shortage, some patients said they were forced buy marijuana from street users or turn to ad hoc networks of unsanctioned growers willing to provide it at low or no cost.
"Things are really good now, but it's been rough," said Belinda Cunningham, 64, an HIV and cervical-cancer patient from Northeast Washington. On doctors' orders, she uses cannabis up to three times a day to boost her appetite and reduce nausea from the more than 15 medications she takes daily. "When I couldn't get it, I got sick again. My doctors said, 'Uh oh, you're losing weight.' "
The city program allows patients who get prescriptions for cannabis to register with the District Department of Health and then purchase up to two ounces a month each of Blue Dream, Medijuana, Old Amsterdam or other varieties at city-sanctioned dispensaries. For the first year of the program, the law covered only five health conditions, including AIDS, cancer and glaucoma.
But after the city council relaxed those restrictions in the summer of 2014, a flood of new registrants quickly outstripped the tightly regulated supply chain, in which three licensed cultivation centers provided cannabis to three licensed dispensaries.
As the number of qualified buyers jumped from under 800 to more than 2,300 in six months, outlets began restricting patients to just a gram or two per visit, leading some users to return day after day or to do without. In some cases, dispensaries had to close their doors when they could not restock their inventories.
"It was a total bummer," said Vanessa West, manager of Metropolitan Wellness, a dispensary near Eastern Market.
It took months for the cultivators to catch up, even after the council voted in 2014 to increase the number of plants each could grow from 95 to 500, and then, in April, to 1,000. It takes more than five months to bring a plant from cutting to budding, even in the climate-controlled, LED-illuminated industrial spaces in which the growers operate.
Existing cultivators added plants, and new growers entered the market. As of now, six growers are delivering cannabis and another is expected to begin harvesting soon, said West, who buys from multiple suppliers.
The District program, while still tightly regulated, is beginning to feel like the more open medical cannabis markets in other states, including California, where West worked before coming to Washington.
"It feels like we're getting to a stable place," she said. "We can pick and choose from among more products, and the cultivators are asking if we want more. We don't have to limit our patients to a smaller quantity anymore."
Prices have come down a bit as supply has increased, West said. Some of the 17 strains available at the dispensary have fallen to $20 a gram from $25. By law, low-income patients get a discount of 20 percent at all city dispensaries. The Health Department charges $100 for the marijuana card, but those with low incomes pay only $25.
The increased capacity has allowed growers to introduce more strains of cannabis, which the dispensaries sell as THC-laced oils, teas and baked goods along with smokable buds. District Growers, one of the city's first cultivators, produces 26 varieties, double the number it offered last year. The company also produces cold-pressed cannabis juice and has contracted with city bakeries to make pastries and cupcakes that the company infuses with marijuana-based creams and icings.
"I think a lot of patients prefer something fresh to a dry, shrink-wrapped brownie," said District Growers owner Corey Barnette. "We're excited about where the industry is going now."
Dispensary owners and cultivators have joined with patient advocates in an effort to loosen the D.C. system even more. They are pushing legislation before the D.C. Council that would eliminate the limit on plant numbers; allow growers to move more easily into larger facilities; and double the quantity of marijuana that users can buy to four ounces per month.
Council member Yvette M. Alexander (D-Ward 7), sponsor of the legislation, said she expects the council to approve the measures by the end of the year. She expects demand to increase steadily and said the program would keep the city's marijuana market highly restrictive, even with the changes.
"It's well under control," Alexander said. "I think our medical-marijuana program can be an example used by any other state."
The prolonged shortage, however, was a hardship on many of the patients in the program.
Cunningham said she did not feel safe traveling to dispensaries almost daily to buy a pinch or two of the cannabis she needs to smoke three times a day. Sometimes nothing was available but sticks that she would boil for tea. Soon, she said, the nausea returned and she began dropping pounds.
"I had to do something or I would be a dead woman," she said.
Her doctors at George Washington University put her on a special diet and encouraged her to find additional sources of cannabis. That was difficult, she said.
"I didn't want to buy it off the street from somebody I didn't even know," Cunningham said. "You don't even know what's in it."
After District voters approved the growing of marijuana for personal use, she went to a seed swap in Adams Morgan. There were dozens of other frustrated city residents there, including seniors with arthritis and parents of sick children. Many, including Cunningham, learned they were ineligible to grow their own marijuana because they lived in government-subsidized housing.
But others there offered to help. Several recreational growers took patient names and phone numbers, offering to share their own supplies. Cunningham said this "share network" helped her bridge the gap for months, sometimes at no cost. She uses two ounces a month, costing about $500 when she buys it from the dispensaries.
"The best thing now is I can choose the strain I need," she said. "They've really got it pinpointed for which one helps with different conditions."
News Moderator: Robert Celt 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: New Growers, More Plants Ease D.C.'s Pot Pain
Author: Steve Hendrix
Contact: The Washington Post
Photo Credit: Marvin Joseph
Website: The Washington Post
The boost in supply has ended rationing and cut the price of cannabis for the 3,500 city residents legally allowed to buy it. During the shortage, some patients said they were forced buy marijuana from street users or turn to ad hoc networks of unsanctioned growers willing to provide it at low or no cost.
"Things are really good now, but it's been rough," said Belinda Cunningham, 64, an HIV and cervical-cancer patient from Northeast Washington. On doctors' orders, she uses cannabis up to three times a day to boost her appetite and reduce nausea from the more than 15 medications she takes daily. "When I couldn't get it, I got sick again. My doctors said, 'Uh oh, you're losing weight.' "
The city program allows patients who get prescriptions for cannabis to register with the District Department of Health and then purchase up to two ounces a month each of Blue Dream, Medijuana, Old Amsterdam or other varieties at city-sanctioned dispensaries. For the first year of the program, the law covered only five health conditions, including AIDS, cancer and glaucoma.
But after the city council relaxed those restrictions in the summer of 2014, a flood of new registrants quickly outstripped the tightly regulated supply chain, in which three licensed cultivation centers provided cannabis to three licensed dispensaries.
As the number of qualified buyers jumped from under 800 to more than 2,300 in six months, outlets began restricting patients to just a gram or two per visit, leading some users to return day after day or to do without. In some cases, dispensaries had to close their doors when they could not restock their inventories.
"It was a total bummer," said Vanessa West, manager of Metropolitan Wellness, a dispensary near Eastern Market.
It took months for the cultivators to catch up, even after the council voted in 2014 to increase the number of plants each could grow from 95 to 500, and then, in April, to 1,000. It takes more than five months to bring a plant from cutting to budding, even in the climate-controlled, LED-illuminated industrial spaces in which the growers operate.
Existing cultivators added plants, and new growers entered the market. As of now, six growers are delivering cannabis and another is expected to begin harvesting soon, said West, who buys from multiple suppliers.
The District program, while still tightly regulated, is beginning to feel like the more open medical cannabis markets in other states, including California, where West worked before coming to Washington.
"It feels like we're getting to a stable place," she said. "We can pick and choose from among more products, and the cultivators are asking if we want more. We don't have to limit our patients to a smaller quantity anymore."
Prices have come down a bit as supply has increased, West said. Some of the 17 strains available at the dispensary have fallen to $20 a gram from $25. By law, low-income patients get a discount of 20 percent at all city dispensaries. The Health Department charges $100 for the marijuana card, but those with low incomes pay only $25.
The increased capacity has allowed growers to introduce more strains of cannabis, which the dispensaries sell as THC-laced oils, teas and baked goods along with smokable buds. District Growers, one of the city's first cultivators, produces 26 varieties, double the number it offered last year. The company also produces cold-pressed cannabis juice and has contracted with city bakeries to make pastries and cupcakes that the company infuses with marijuana-based creams and icings.
"I think a lot of patients prefer something fresh to a dry, shrink-wrapped brownie," said District Growers owner Corey Barnette. "We're excited about where the industry is going now."
Dispensary owners and cultivators have joined with patient advocates in an effort to loosen the D.C. system even more. They are pushing legislation before the D.C. Council that would eliminate the limit on plant numbers; allow growers to move more easily into larger facilities; and double the quantity of marijuana that users can buy to four ounces per month.
Council member Yvette M. Alexander (D-Ward 7), sponsor of the legislation, said she expects the council to approve the measures by the end of the year. She expects demand to increase steadily and said the program would keep the city's marijuana market highly restrictive, even with the changes.
"It's well under control," Alexander said. "I think our medical-marijuana program can be an example used by any other state."
The prolonged shortage, however, was a hardship on many of the patients in the program.
Cunningham said she did not feel safe traveling to dispensaries almost daily to buy a pinch or two of the cannabis she needs to smoke three times a day. Sometimes nothing was available but sticks that she would boil for tea. Soon, she said, the nausea returned and she began dropping pounds.
"I had to do something or I would be a dead woman," she said.
Her doctors at George Washington University put her on a special diet and encouraged her to find additional sources of cannabis. That was difficult, she said.
"I didn't want to buy it off the street from somebody I didn't even know," Cunningham said. "You don't even know what's in it."
After District voters approved the growing of marijuana for personal use, she went to a seed swap in Adams Morgan. There were dozens of other frustrated city residents there, including seniors with arthritis and parents of sick children. Many, including Cunningham, learned they were ineligible to grow their own marijuana because they lived in government-subsidized housing.
But others there offered to help. Several recreational growers took patient names and phone numbers, offering to share their own supplies. Cunningham said this "share network" helped her bridge the gap for months, sometimes at no cost. She uses two ounces a month, costing about $500 when she buys it from the dispensaries.
"The best thing now is I can choose the strain I need," she said. "They've really got it pinpointed for which one helps with different conditions."
News Moderator: Robert Celt 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: New Growers, More Plants Ease D.C.'s Pot Pain
Author: Steve Hendrix
Contact: The Washington Post
Photo Credit: Marvin Joseph
Website: The Washington Post
