D.C. wants to bring marijuana gifting shops into the medical market

Shortly after voters legalized marijuana in 2014, Congress, which has oversight of D.C., introduced a budget rider that prevented the city from commercializing the drug. So for years, Alvarez, and dozens of other gifting shops — sometimes called i-71 compliant, after the number of the ballot initiative that legalized cannabis — have functioned as the de facto recreational market in the nation’s capital, operating in a legal gray area with little recognition, or regulation, from the government. [Read More @ The Washington Post]