PR26-0109 • 2025

Unlicensed Establishment Enforcement Clarification Emergency Declaration Resolution of 2025

Healthcare

Enacted

This bill passed the Legislature and reached final enactment based on the latest official action.

Sponsor: at the request of the Mayor
Last action: 2025-03-14
Official status: Approved
Effective date: Not listed

Plain English Breakdown

The official source does not provide specific details on enforcement actions beyond stating they are necessary for public health and safety.

Clarifying Rules for Unlicensed Cannabis Businesses

This resolution clarifies enforcement measures and ensures that unlicensed cannabis businesses selling Schedule I substances are subject to closure starting April 1, 2025.

What This Bill Does

Declares an emergency situation regarding the need to clarify rules for unlicensed cannabis establishments.
Ensures all unlicensed cannabis businesses that applied during a specific period and remain open illegally will be closed starting April 1, 2025 if they sell Schedule I substances or products containing them.
Allows the Alcoholic Beverage and Cannabis Board (Board) to close licensed medical cannabis establishments engaging in illegal activities posing an immediate danger to public health and safety.

Who It Names or Affects

Unlicensed cannabis businesses operating illegally in the District of Columbia
Licensed medical cannabis establishments engaging in illegal activities

Terms To Know

Schedule I substances: Drugs or chemicals that are considered to have a high potential for abuse and no accepted medical use, such as psychedelic mushrooms and Dimethyltryptamine.
Summary closure: The immediate closing of an establishment by the Alcoholic Beverage and Cannabis Board (Board) without prior notice or hearing.

Limits and Unknowns

Does not specify what happens to unlicensed businesses that do not sell Schedule I substances before April 1, 2025.
The resolution does not provide details on how the enforcement actions will be carried out beyond stating they are necessary for public health and safety.

Bill History

2025-03-14 Council of the District of Columbia LIMS
Resolution R26-0056, Effective from Mar 04, 2025 Published in DC Register Vol 72 and Page 002692
2025-03-04 Council of the District of Columbia LIMS
Retained by the Council with comments from the Committee on Business and Economic Development
2025-03-04 Council of the District of Columbia LIMS
Legislative Meeting
2025-03-04 Council of the District of Columbia LIMS
Approved with Resolution Number R26-0056
2025-02-28 Council of the District of Columbia LIMS
PR26-0109 Introduced by Chairman Mendelson at Office of the Secretary

Official Summary Text

Unlicensed Establishment Enforcement Clarification Emergency Declaration Resolution of 2025

Current Bill Text

Read the full stored bill text

ENROLLED ORIGINAL

1

A RESOLUTION

26-56

IN THE COUNCIL OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

March 4, 2025

To declare the existence of an emergency with respect to the need to amend, on an emergency
basis, the Legalization of Marijuana for Medical Treatment Initiative of 1999 to clarify
the definition of an unlicensed establishment, to ensure that all unlicensed establishments
are subject to enforcement action beginning on April 1, 2025, to indicate that the current
statutory compliance exemption does not apply to unlicensed establishments that sell
Schedule I substances or products that contain Schedule I substances, and to clarify when
the ABC Board can issue a notice of summary closure to a licensed medical cannabis
establishment.

RESOLVED, BY THE COUNCIL OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, That this
resolution may be cited as the “Unlicensed Establishment Enforcement Clarification Emergency
Declaration Resolution of 2025”.

Sec. 2. As of February 19, 2025, the Alcoholic Beverage and Cannabis Administration
(“ABCA”) and the Metropolitan Police Department (“MPD”) have summarily closed and
padlocked 31 unlicensed cannabis establishments. At a recent Council joint committee public
roundtable held on February 11, 2025, regarding the state of the medical cannabis industry, it
was established that additional enforcement measures are needed to further assist with the
closure of unlicensed establishments operating in the District.
(b) The emergency legislation seeks to level the playing field between licensed and
unlicensed cannabis businesses by clarifying that all unlicensed cannabis businesses that applied
during the statutory open application period that still remain unlicensed and operating illegally
are subject to enforcement and summary closure beginning on April 1, 2025. The emergency
legislation also clarifies that unlicensed establishments that applied during the statutory open
application period are subject to enforcement and summary closure prior to April 1, 2025, if they
engage in the sale of Schedule I substances and products containing Schedule I substances such
as psychedelic mushrooms and Dimethyltryptamine.
(c) The emergency legislation also promotes public health and safety by allowing the
Alcoholic Beverage and Cannabis Board (“Board”) to summarily close and padlock, through
ABCA and MPD, unlicensed businesses that stop selling cannabis and cannabis products but
continue to illegally sell Schedule I substances and products containing Schedule I substances.
ENROLLED ORIGINAL

2

(d) The emergency legislation also promotes public health and safety by allowing the
Board to summarily close a licensed establishment that engages in illegal activity that presents an
imminent danger to the health and safety of the public after being licensed by the Board.

Sec. 3. The Council of the District of Columbia determines that the circumstances
enumerated in section 2 constitute emergency circumstances, making it necessary that the
Unlicensed Establishment Enforcement Clarification Emergency Amendment Act of 2025 be
adopted after a single reading.

Sec. 4. This resolution shall take effect immediately.