Ban On Private Marijuana Clubs To Continue In Washington D.C.

Washington voters approved marijuana legalization in 2014. The success vote made cultivation, possession, and distribution for no consideration legal in D.C.. However, regulated sales are not legal. A temporary ban on private marijuana clubs went into effect in an attempt to curb public marijuana consumption.

That makes it hard for tourists who don’t have a private residence to consume marijuana in, and for people that either don’t have a permanent residence, or just want to consume marijuana in a social environment. There was a vote held today in Washington D.C. to either let the ban expire, or to extend the ban. The ban would automatically expire if there were more than five votes against it.

That appeared to be the case earlier today when the initial vote was 7 votes to keep the ban in place, and 6 votes to let the vote expire. The marijuana legalization campaign’s Twitter page told the tale (I was glued to that Twitter feed all day today):

7 DC Councilmembers were for the ban & 6 want to #LetTheBanExpire. While we lost the vote, we won bc more than 5 votes against it 🍀

— DCMJ (@DCMJ2014) January 5, 2016

That was short lived, per the tweet below:

REVERSAL: Pot club ban restored, Council member LaRuby May and Charles Allen change their votes under lobbying from colleagues and Bowser

— Aaron C. Davis (@byaaroncdavis) January 5, 2016

That was a very harsh tweet to read. But the battle isn’t over yet. Per even more tweeting:

Wow that was a roller coaster. We won then we lost. What we need to do next is to amend the final bill so it is less broad! #LetTheBanExpire

— DCMJ (@DCMJ2014) January 5, 2016