Five years after the legalization of cannabis in Washington, D.C., racial bias is still prevalent in arrests for marijuana-related offenses in the nation’s capital, according to an analysis of police records by the Washington Post. Between 2015 and 2019, nearly 90% of those arrested for cannabis-related crimes in Washington, D.C.

The history of cannabis laws and regulations in the United States is a complicated, convoluted affair that has arguably only gotten more confusing as more and more states launch legal medical and recreational marijuana programs. The result can sometimes be, well, a bit odd.

The following is a short list of some of the stranger cannabis regulations currently on the books in the US. 

1. Don’t transport marijuana by boat in California 

Make sure not to run fowl of the law in California. (wiroklyngz/123rf)

Some D.C. patients will soon be able to have medical marijuana delivered to their home temporarily, as part of the District's response to the new coronavirus, also known as COVID-19.

Mayor Muriel Bowser and the D.C. Department of Health introduced emergency rulemaking to allow registered dispensaries in the District to dispense to qualifying patients via delivery, curbside pickup, or at-the-door pickup.

The story of cannabis legalization is, in part, a real estate story, as cannabis business owners buy and rent storefront property, scope out cultivation spaces, and engage with zoning boards. Today, eleven states and Washington, D.C. have legalized adult use cannabis, and a number of efforts to legalize by ballot or by legislature are underway, from New Jersey and New York to Oklahoma. 

This week, the House Judiciary Committee voted to pass the Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement Act, or the MORE Act, to decriminalize weed at the federal level.

As lawmakers in the Capitol debated this move, all around them in the District of Columbia, the herb in question was circulating widely, being “gifted” and enjoyed freely, if not for free, and perfectly legal.

In September, Washington D.C. mayor Murial Bowser brought an end to months of anxious waiting on the part of city workers who lawfully consume cannabis. The new mayoral order clarified that the use of cannabis for any reason cannot prevent a person from getting or maintaining a government job. The order also blocked any city agencies from setting their own workplace marijuana policies.

On Thursday, Washington, DC may have become the medical marijuana mecca of the United States. Mayor Muriel Bowser announced that dispensaries in the nation’s capital will now accept valid medical marjiuana cards from any of the 27 states that have such systems.

Washington D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser released the following plan this week:

Mayor Muriel Bowser has proposed the Safe Cannabis Sales Act of 2019 – legislation allowing for the sale of recreational cannabis in Washington, DC. The bill enhances public health and safety, provides clarity on the use of cannabis and cannabis products, and advances equity to ensure that that benefits of the new regime go to DC’s most vulnerable communities through jobs and investments in housing. Revenues collected on cannabis will be invested back into the community, focusing most on areas hardest hit by the criminalization of marijuana.

As the political will to enact federal legalization of medicinal or recreational marijuana continues to evade Senate and Congress, smaller jurisdictions across the country are putting their own regulation ordinance on the books. But this time, such proposed legislation is striking close to home for federal lawmakers; Washington D.C.’s Mayor Muriel E. Bowser introduced a bill on Thursday that would give the go-ahead to recreational cannabis sales in the nation’s capital.