The D.C. Council is set to hold a public hearing next week on four medical cannabis bills, including proposals dealing with license timelines, retailer product preparation, cannabis-infused beverages and how certain location and protest rules apply to licensed businesses.
The July 2 hearing will be held by the Committee of the Whole, chaired by Council Chairman Phil Mendelson. Three of the measures were introduced at the request of Mayor Muriel Bowser, while a fourth bill, B26-0522, was introduced separately by Councilmember Charles Allen and co-sponsored by several other councilmembers.
B26-0522, the Medical Cannabis Process Improvement Amendment Act of 2025, would revise parts of D.C.’s medical cannabis licensing framework. The measure would remove the term “daycare center” from current law and instead add “child development facility” to the list of establishments that trigger a 300-foot location restriction for medical cannabis license holders.
The bill would also allow an Advisory Neighborhood Commission to protest the issuance, renewal or transfer of an internet retailer license, adding a new layer of local input for that license category.
Another bill scheduled for the hearing, B26-0346, would give conditional medical cannabis license holders an additional year before their licenses expire. The extension would apply to conditional licenses for cultivation centers, retailers, internet retailers, manufacturers, couriers and testing laboratories.
The proposal is aimed at giving businesses more time to meet the requirements needed to move from a conditional license to a fully operational medical cannabis license, including securing a permanent location.
B26-0259 would establish a new retailer craft preparation endorsement, allowing licensed medical cannabis retailers to prepare certain products at their licensed premises. The endorsement would apply to products such as edibles, topicals and prerolls, while placing limits on how the products may be prepared and stored.
Under the proposal, retailers with the endorsement would not be allowed to extract cannabinoids or use butane or explosive gas as part of the preparation process.
The fourth bill, B26-0654, would create a medical cannabis beverage production endorsement, allowing certain alcohol manufacturers to produce nonalcoholic medical cannabis beverages for licensed medical cannabis manufacturers.
That measure would also create a medical cannabinoids import endorsement, expand courier-related authority and clarify tax provisions related to medical cannabis and medical cannabis products.
The hearing comes as District officials continue making changes to D.C.’s medical cannabis system, which has been expanded in recent years as the city continues to operate without a regulated adult-use marijuana sales market due to ongoing congressional restrictions.
If advanced, the four bills would continue that broader regulatory update by addressing licensing timelines, retailer operations, beverage production, internet retailer oversight and local zoning-related rules.
