DC really needs to get pot “gifting” stores under control

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well, I'm a Democrat but this is not acceptable, and if the mayor, City Council, and police department can't figure out what to do about it, I'll be voting with my feet by leaving because I do not want to raise a child in a place where no one seems to give a damn.

Good. Don't let the door hit you on the way out.

Be careful what you wish for.

There were people who think DC’s dark days in the 80s and 90s were great, because they mostly got to do what they wanted. Drugs, violence, government corruption— it was all common and accepted. Everyone else left, if they could, or stayed and suffered. The city’s tax base barely existed and anyone who wanted to actually improve the lives of families and workers in the city got shouted down.

If you think returning to that era is a great idea, I hope you are ready for the side effects— development hitting a wall, property values declining, middle and UM class families fleeing for suburbs, pulling money out if the school system, public works projects falling by the wayside.

But hey— free or practically free weed, and you can smoke it wherever you want. Hope it’s worth it!

Oh no, because I can order overprice cookies, pizza slices, or a tee shirt and get a "free" dime bag of weed, the crack epidemic and utter lawlessness will return!!!!11111oneoneeleven

It’s not cause and effect. But when the response to people saying “this unregulated, semi-legal drug activity in my neighborhood is leading to other behaviors that make it hard to raise a family here” is greeted with derision, and when violent crime increases with no response from city government, yes, you will see chunks of the city’s tax base leaving, and an increase in lawlessness.

No one is saying re-criminalize weed. We’re saying: regulate weed sales (or weed “sales”) and address externalities of these businesses. That’s actually not a big ask. That it’s seen as one is ridiculous.

Except it IS a big ask, because our city's leadership don't have control over this due to Congressional override.

Will you STOP repeating this lie? DC absolutely has the ability to regulate the “gifting” shops.

No, you’re wrong. They have the ability to shut them down, but they don’t have the ability to make specific new rules allowing legal marijuana sales within new parameters or conditions. Since voters passed a law legalizing recreational possession and use, the city can’t really opt just to shut these shops down. What they’d like to do is set up a regulatory scheme with inspections, taxes, etc., but that’s not possible now.

You say “regulate” when you mean “close” here, but that’s not what the city or most residents want.

False. The city could seize at a minimum products that violate consumer safety standards (eg packaged to look like candy) and also take enforcement action against people who distribute to children, allow smoking outside, etc. If they are going to maintain the legal fiction that “gifting” does not violate I-71, then they can also issue regulations about when, where and how “gifting” occurs.

How is the smoking outside is their issue to enforce?

Just like people taking beers outside of a bar are the responsibility of the bar. This is bread and butter stuff. If they don’t want their customers arrested for smoking outside then they’ll make sure their customers move along.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ugh. I am really grossed out by the “gifting” stores popping up everywhere with their ugly storefronts, crime, and loiterers outside smoking weed and acting like they own the sidewalk. The DC council really needs to get on top of this and required them to be licensed by ABRA, inspected for dangerous products packaged like candy, and allow ANCs to protest and get settlement agreements about crowd management, smoking in front, and safety. Plus there should not be multiple shops on one block. Does the Council want DC to be a sketchy version of Amsterdam?

Why do you care if other folks are able to score some cookies for their Netflix and chill? Weirdo.

Personally, I have had issues in multiple apartment buildings and a subsequent house I rented by neighbors who smoke constantly. I'm trying to raise my kids in the city and we have had chronic issues (pun intended) with this crap coming into our homes... even in "nice" neighborhoods. I also constantly smell strong pot smoke coming from cars and I'm trying to keep myself and my family alive as we walk, bus, bike, or drive through the city. The destigmatization of pot is awful. The "health benefits" are a joke aside from those undergoing chemotherapy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Oh is this the vibrant DC culture we should be preserving? Sursum Corda and skanky liquor stores? Sorry, no, good riddance.

For the record, I don’t gaf if you smoke weed. I DO care if you make the block unpleasant to walk down.

Carjackings are taking place at record highs in DC. Murders are at their highest rates in decades. And you're crying about grey market shops that sell a plant?



OK.

How many of those kids perpetrating those crimes do you think use weed?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well, I'm a Democrat but this is not acceptable, and if the mayor, City Council, and police department can't figure out what to do about it, I'll be voting with my feet by leaving because I do not want to raise a child in a place where no one seems to give a damn.

Good. Don't let the door hit you on the way out.

Be careful what you wish for.

There were people who think DC’s dark days in the 80s and 90s were great, because they mostly got to do what they wanted. Drugs, violence, government corruption— it was all common and accepted. Everyone else left, if they could, or stayed and suffered. The city’s tax base barely existed and anyone who wanted to actually improve the lives of families and workers in the city got shouted down.

If you think returning to that era is a great idea, I hope you are ready for the side effects— development hitting a wall, property values declining, middle and UM class families fleeing for suburbs, pulling money out if the school system, public works projects falling by the wayside.

But hey— free or practically free weed, and you can smoke it wherever you want. Hope it’s worth it!

Oh no, because I can order overprice cookies, pizza slices, or a tee shirt and get a "free" dime bag of weed, the crack epidemic and utter lawlessness will return!!!!11111oneoneeleven

It’s not cause and effect. But when the response to people saying “this unregulated, semi-legal drug activity in my neighborhood is leading to other behaviors that make it hard to raise a family here” is greeted with derision, and when violent crime increases with no response from city government, yes, you will see chunks of the city’s tax base leaving, and an increase in lawlessness.

No one is saying re-criminalize weed. We’re saying: regulate weed sales (or weed “sales”) and address externalities of these businesses. That’s actually not a big ask. That it’s seen as one is ridiculous.

Except it IS a big ask, because our city's leadership don't have control over this due to Congressional override.

Will you STOP repeating this lie? DC absolutely has the ability to regulate the “gifting” shops.

No, you’re wrong. They have the ability to shut them down, but they don’t have the ability to make specific new rules allowing legal marijuana sales within new parameters or conditions. Since voters passed a law legalizing recreational possession and use, the city can’t really opt just to shut these shops down. What they’d like to do is set up a regulatory scheme with inspections, taxes, etc., but that’s not possible now.

You say “regulate” when you mean “close” here, but that’s not what the city or most residents want.

False. The city could seize at a minimum products that violate consumer safety standards (eg packaged to look like candy) and also take enforcement action against people who distribute to children, allow smoking outside, etc. If they are going to maintain the legal fiction that “gifting” does not violate I-71, then they can also issue regulations about when, where and how “gifting” occurs.

That’s not regulating the gifting shops, though, as none of that is permitted under existing laws or rules.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well, I'm a Democrat but this is not acceptable, and if the mayor, City Council, and police department can't figure out what to do about it, I'll be voting with my feet by leaving because I do not want to raise a child in a place where no one seems to give a damn.

Good. Don't let the door hit you on the way out.

Be careful what you wish for.

There were people who think DC’s dark days in the 80s and 90s were great, because they mostly got to do what they wanted. Drugs, violence, government corruption— it was all common and accepted. Everyone else left, if they could, or stayed and suffered. The city’s tax base barely existed and anyone who wanted to actually improve the lives of families and workers in the city got shouted down.

If you think returning to that era is a great idea, I hope you are ready for the side effects— development hitting a wall, property values declining, middle and UM class families fleeing for suburbs, pulling money out if the school system, public works projects falling by the wayside.

But hey— free or practically free weed, and you can smoke it wherever you want. Hope it’s worth it!

Oh no, because I can order overprice cookies, pizza slices, or a tee shirt and get a "free" dime bag of weed, the crack epidemic and utter lawlessness will return!!!!11111oneoneeleven

It’s not cause and effect. But when the response to people saying “this unregulated, semi-legal drug activity in my neighborhood is leading to other behaviors that make it hard to raise a family here” is greeted with derision, and when violent crime increases with no response from city government, yes, you will see chunks of the city’s tax base leaving, and an increase in lawlessness.

No one is saying re-criminalize weed. We’re saying: regulate weed sales (or weed “sales”) and address externalities of these businesses. That’s actually not a big ask. That it’s seen as one is ridiculous.

Except it IS a big ask, because our city's leadership don't have control over this due to Congressional override.

Will you STOP repeating this lie? DC absolutely has the ability to regulate the “gifting” shops.

No, you’re wrong. They have the ability to shut them down, but they don’t have the ability to make specific new rules allowing legal marijuana sales within new parameters or conditions. Since voters passed a law legalizing recreational possession and use, the city can’t really opt just to shut these shops down. What they’d like to do is set up a regulatory scheme with inspections, taxes, etc., but that’s not possible now.

You say “regulate” when you mean “close” here, but that’s not what the city or most residents want.

False. The city could seize at a minimum products that violate consumer safety standards (eg packaged to look like candy) and also take enforcement action against people who distribute to children, allow smoking outside, etc. If they are going to maintain the legal fiction that “gifting” does not violate I-71, then they can also issue regulations about when, where and how “gifting” occurs.

This is prohibited by the rider that prohibits the city from spending any money setting up a regulatory regime for legal weed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
How many of those kids perpetrating those crimes do you think use weed?

What a stupid question

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Personally, I have had issues in multiple apartment buildings and a subsequent house I rented by neighbors who smoke constantly. I'm trying to raise my kids in the city and we have had chronic issues (pun intended) with this crap coming into our homes... even in "nice" neighborhoods. I also constantly smell strong pot smoke coming from cars and I'm trying to keep myself and my family alive as we walk, bus, bike, or drive through the city. The destigmatization of pot is awful. The "health benefits" are a joke aside from those undergoing chemotherapy.

Sounds like Alabama or some other predatory carceral back water hell hole is your type of place.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Personally, I have had issues in multiple apartment buildings and a subsequent house I rented by neighbors who smoke constantly. I'm trying to raise my kids in the city and we have had chronic issues (pun intended) with this crap coming into our homes... even in "nice" neighborhoods. I also constantly smell strong pot smoke coming from cars and I'm trying to keep myself and my family alive as we walk, bus, bike, or drive through the city. The destigmatization of pot is awful. The "health benefits" are a joke aside from those undergoing chemotherapy.

Oh well. Your kids will survive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
NP here, and they absolutely should be regulated because they are selling to minors. I found a name on a stash I found in my kid's room that led to one of these shops. If that makes me a puritan, so be it.

Join the club of the millions and millions of puritan mothers in American who wet their pants because their virgin sons were tempted to try the devil's harvest.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I live a block from Georgia Ave, where there are about six shops in a two or three block stretch. I don’t see them as a nuisance that OP describes - no loiterers and they just look like all the other shops on the street. Columbia Heights plaza a few blocks a way is the real nuisance zone from drunks

Columbia Heights has real crackheads and true waistoids with real drug dealing, too much for us to care about cannabis consumers, who aren't a threat to anyone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
False. The city could seize at a minimum products that violate consumer safety standards (eg packaged to look like candy) and also take enforcement action against people who distribute to children, allow smoking outside, etc. If they are going to maintain the legal fiction that “gifting” does not violate I-71, then they can also issue regulations about when, where and how “gifting” occurs.

Murder and carjacking rates are skyhigh in DC and your solution is to waste already valuable and scarce police resources on people who are selling and consuming a harmless plant. I hate the mayor but the one thing I'll give her credit for is that it is abundantly clear that MPD will not waste its time and resources busting cannabis sellers and users because a bunch of uptight old biddies on DCUM have their feefees hurt.

Nobody said you had to like it....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well, I'm a Democrat but this is not acceptable, and if the mayor, City Council, and police department can't figure out what to do about it, I'll be voting with my feet by leaving because I do not want to raise a child in a place where no one seems to give a damn.

Good. Don't let the door hit you on the way out.

Be careful what you wish for.

There were people who think DC’s dark days in the 80s and 90s were great, because they mostly got to do what they wanted. Drugs, violence, government corruption— it was all common and accepted. Everyone else left, if they could, or stayed and suffered. The city’s tax base barely existed and anyone who wanted to actually improve the lives of families and workers in the city got shouted down.

If you think returning to that era is a great idea, I hope you are ready for the side effects— development hitting a wall, property values declining, middle and UM class families fleeing for suburbs, pulling money out if the school system, public works projects falling by the wayside.

But hey— free or practically free weed, and you can smoke it wherever you want. Hope it’s worth it!

Oh no, because I can order overprice cookies, pizza slices, or a tee shirt and get a "free" dime bag of weed, the crack epidemic and utter lawlessness will return!!!!11111oneoneeleven

It’s not cause and effect. But when the response to people saying “this unregulated, semi-legal drug activity in my neighborhood is leading to other behaviors that make it hard to raise a family here” is greeted with derision, and when violent crime increases with no response from city government, yes, you will see chunks of the city’s tax base leaving, and an increase in lawlessness.

No one is saying re-criminalize weed. We’re saying: regulate weed sales (or weed “sales”) and address externalities of these businesses. That’s actually not a big ask. That it’s seen as one is ridiculous.

Except it IS a big ask, because our city's leadership don't have control over this due to Congressional override.

Will you STOP repeating this lie? DC absolutely has the ability to regulate the “gifting” shops.

No, you’re wrong. They have the ability to shut them down, but they don’t have the ability to make specific new rules allowing legal marijuana sales within new parameters or conditions. Since voters passed a law legalizing recreational possession and use, the city can’t really opt just to shut these shops down. What they’d like to do is set up a regulatory scheme with inspections, taxes, etc., but that’s not possible now.

You say “regulate” when you mean “close” here, but that’s not what the city or most residents want.

False. The city could seize at a minimum products that violate consumer safety standards (eg packaged to look like candy) and also take enforcement action against people who distribute to children, allow smoking outside, etc. If they are going to maintain the legal fiction that “gifting” does not violate I-71, then they can also issue regulations about when, where and how “gifting” occurs.

That’s not regulating the gifting shops, though, as none of that is permitted under existing laws or rules.

You’re wrong. Do you think the “gifting” shops have some kind of immunity to law? Everything I listed is possible. And I didn’t even list the main thing, which is possession of over 1 ounce.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well, I'm a Democrat but this is not acceptable, and if the mayor, City Council, and police department can't figure out what to do about it, I'll be voting with my feet by leaving because I do not want to raise a child in a place where no one seems to give a damn.

Good. Don't let the door hit you on the way out.

Be careful what you wish for.

There were people who think DC’s dark days in the 80s and 90s were great, because they mostly got to do what they wanted. Drugs, violence, government corruption— it was all common and accepted. Everyone else left, if they could, or stayed and suffered. The city’s tax base barely existed and anyone who wanted to actually improve the lives of families and workers in the city got shouted down.

If you think returning to that era is a great idea, I hope you are ready for the side effects— development hitting a wall, property values declining, middle and UM class families fleeing for suburbs, pulling money out if the school system, public works projects falling by the wayside.

But hey— free or practically free weed, and you can smoke it wherever you want. Hope it’s worth it!

Oh no, because I can order overprice cookies, pizza slices, or a tee shirt and get a "free" dime bag of weed, the crack epidemic and utter lawlessness will return!!!!11111oneoneeleven

It’s not cause and effect. But when the response to people saying “this unregulated, semi-legal drug activity in my neighborhood is leading to other behaviors that make it hard to raise a family here” is greeted with derision, and when violent crime increases with no response from city government, yes, you will see chunks of the city’s tax base leaving, and an increase in lawlessness.

No one is saying re-criminalize weed. We’re saying: regulate weed sales (or weed “sales”) and address externalities of these businesses. That’s actually not a big ask. That it’s seen as one is ridiculous.

Except it IS a big ask, because our city's leadership don't have control over this due to Congressional override.

Will you STOP repeating this lie? DC absolutely has the ability to regulate the “gifting” shops.

No, you’re wrong. They have the ability to shut them down, but they don’t have the ability to make specific new rules allowing legal marijuana sales within new parameters or conditions. Since voters passed a law legalizing recreational possession and use, the city can’t really opt just to shut these shops down. What they’d like to do is set up a regulatory scheme with inspections, taxes, etc., but that’s not possible now.

You say “regulate” when you mean “close” here, but that’s not what the city or most residents want.

False. The city could seize at a minimum products that violate consumer safety standards (eg packaged to look like candy) and also take enforcement action against people who distribute to children, allow smoking outside, etc. If they are going to maintain the legal fiction that “gifting” does not violate I-71, then they can also issue regulations about when, where and how “gifting” occurs.

This is prohibited by the rider that prohibits the city from spending any money setting up a regulatory regime for legal weed.

Too bad then, I guess they just have to shut the “gifting” shops down with law enforcement.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
False. The city could seize at a minimum products that violate consumer safety standards (eg packaged to look like candy) and also take enforcement action against people who distribute to children, allow smoking outside, etc. If they are going to maintain the legal fiction that “gifting” does not violate I-71, then they can also issue regulations about when, where and how “gifting” occurs.

Murder and carjacking rates are skyhigh in DC and your solution is to waste already valuable and scarce police resources on people who are selling and consuming a harmless plant. I hate the mayor but the one thing I'll give her credit for is that it is abundantly clear that MPD will not waste its time and resources busting cannabis sellers and users because a bunch of uptight old biddies on DCUM have their feefees hurt.

Nobody said you had to like it....

They will if the right people and businesses complain enough. And it’s not harmless - they are illegal cash businessed that attract crime and a bad element.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well, I'm a Democrat but this is not acceptable, and if the mayor, City Council, and police department can't figure out what to do about it, I'll be voting with my feet by leaving because I do not want to raise a child in a place where no one seems to give a damn.

Good. Don't let the door hit you on the way out.

Be careful what you wish for.

There were people who think DC’s dark days in the 80s and 90s were great, because they mostly got to do what they wanted. Drugs, violence, government corruption— it was all common and accepted. Everyone else left, if they could, or stayed and suffered. The city’s tax base barely existed and anyone who wanted to actually improve the lives of families and workers in the city got shouted down.

If you think returning to that era is a great idea, I hope you are ready for the side effects— development hitting a wall, property values declining, middle and UM class families fleeing for suburbs, pulling money out if the school system, public works projects falling by the wayside.

But hey— free or practically free weed, and you can smoke it wherever you want. Hope it’s worth it!

Oh no, because I can order overprice cookies, pizza slices, or a tee shirt and get a "free" dime bag of weed, the crack epidemic and utter lawlessness will return!!!!11111oneoneeleven

It’s not cause and effect. But when the response to people saying “this unregulated, semi-legal drug activity in my neighborhood is leading to other behaviors that make it hard to raise a family here” is greeted with derision, and when violent crime increases with no response from city government, yes, you will see chunks of the city’s tax base leaving, and an increase in lawlessness.

No one is saying re-criminalize weed. We’re saying: regulate weed sales (or weed “sales”) and address externalities of these businesses. That’s actually not a big ask. That it’s seen as one is ridiculous.

Except it IS a big ask, because our city's leadership don't have control over this due to Congressional override.

Will you STOP repeating this lie? DC absolutely has the ability to regulate the “gifting” shops.

No, you’re wrong. They have the ability to shut them down, but they don’t have the ability to make specific new rules allowing legal marijuana sales within new parameters or conditions. Since voters passed a law legalizing recreational possession and use, the city can’t really opt just to shut these shops down. What they’d like to do is set up a regulatory scheme with inspections, taxes, etc., but that’s not possible now.

You say “regulate” when you mean “close” here, but that’s not what the city or most residents want.

False. The city could seize at a minimum products that violate consumer safety standards (eg packaged to look like candy) and also take enforcement action against people who distribute to children, allow smoking outside, etc. If they are going to maintain the legal fiction that “gifting” does not violate I-71, then they can also issue regulations about when, where and how “gifting” occurs.

This is prohibited by the rider that prohibits the city from spending any money setting up a regulatory regime for legal weed.

Too bad then, I guess they just have to shut the “gifting” shops down with law enforcement.

Why would law enforcement shut down legal stores that the citizens asked for in the first place? Law enforcement works for the law abiding members of the community who voted to legalize cannabis. They are not your personal goon squad to unleash against your neighbors.