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Advocates Seek Permission To Sell Cannabis At D.C. Farmer’s Markets

Advocates Seek Permission To Sell Cannabis At D.C. Farmer’s Markets

Emphasizing inclusion and equity, Washington, D.C. cannabis advocates are proposing an amendment to a legalization bill to allow small entrepreneurs to sell cannabis at farmer’s markets.

The idea is to create a “Cottage Industry License” that authorizes the licensee to “grow and produce medicinal and/or recreational marijuana within their residence for sale and delivery at wholesale directly to manufacturers, testing facilities, retailers, and farmers markets.”

Microbusiness and these new “Cottage Industry” licensees could then apply for a “Farmers Market Endorsement” license ($250 annually) that would enable them to sell cannabis at D.C. Farmers Markets. And as long as they don’t exceed four customers per day, cottage industry licensees could use their homes as storefronts, helping to avoid expensive real estate outlays. 

“The message was clear that many D.C. residents want to be a part of the coming commercial cannabis marketplace, but they fear they will be unfairly excluded from ownership and partnership in a cannabis enterprise. The D.C. Council can break the cycle and become the model of success,” said Nikolas Schiller, co-author of Initiative 71 and author of the amendment.

While marijuana possession and usage have been legal for adults in D.C. for seven years now, a congressional rider has prevented the District has been from using local tax dollars to create a regulated market. But both chambers of Congress have excluded that prohibitive language from appropriations legislation which increases the possibility of implementing a regulated market.

“In state after state, legislatures have left out many American entrepreneurs by allowing an exclusive ‘Big Pot’ oligopoly to dominate the local adult-use marketplace. We can break the cannabis oligopoly here in D.C. if we just legalize with the little guy in mind,” District of Columbia Marijuana Justice Adam Eidinger said.

People who own or work for companies with cannabis dispensary licenses would be ineligible for the farmer’s market permit, so it looks like you may be able to grab bud on your Sunday market strolls but no hand pipes to go with it.

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