Residents of the Washington D.C. area have been waiting in patience for the revised medical marijuana rules released in November 2010 to go into effect.  For those keeping track of the District’s progress in the marijuana game, unfortunately, today is not the day you have been waiting for.

One source from the DC Council stated that, “It seems that while the rules should be taking effect today due to the timing of when they were submitted to the D.C. Council, they only become legally valid once published in the D.C. Register, which should happen next week.”  So the wait goes on…only a few more days until the District enacts medical marijuana laws. Marijuana advocates will soon be able to smoke medically approved marijuana, given that they have been granted a medical marijuana license.  However, the rules themselves are hardly liberal.  The District will start off only allowing five dispensaries and ten cultivation centers to operate.  The implementation of such legislation is hardly a speedy process.  District of Columbia Mayor, Vince Gray, still has to appoint a four-person board to oversee the operation and enactment of the new policy.  The department of Health will be undertaking rules and regulations applying to patients and doctors.

As for now, all we can do is sit tight and wait for Mayor Gray’s appointing process to culminate.  It is only a matter of time until our nation’s capital joins the collection of sixteen states that have previously enacted medical marijuana legislation.

The Weed Street Journal Team