Local
D.C. medical marijuana program ‘getting better’
Some say delays in patient approval encouraged street purchases
Although D.C. legalized the production and sale of marijuana for medical purposes just over 20 years ago, activists familiar with the city’s implementation of the program say it has become known for its long delays in approving patients for medical marijuana use.
People following the D.C. Department of Health’s operation of the city’s medical marijuana program say improvements were put in place in the past two months that appear to be streamlining a cumbersome bureaucratic process that they say discouraged many patients in need of medical marijuana.
Patricia Hawkins, a clinical psychologist and former deputy director of D.C.’s Whitman-Walker Health, said city delays in approving a patient’s application for a city approved medical card needed to allow the patient to buy medical marijuana at licensed dispensaries prompted some patients to resort to buying the marijuana from “pop-up” dealers who operate illegally, sometimes selling marijuana on the street.
“That’s the last thing we need them to do,” said Hawkins, who noted that the purity and content of marijuana bought on the black market is unknown and could have harmful additives such as pesticides.
She said street drug dealers also have the reputation for attempting to sell people other harmful drugs such as heroin.
Hawkins noted that LGBT and AIDS activists played an important role in persuading the city to enact the medical marijuana program in the late 1990s just prior to the availability of effective AIDS drugs. She said marijuana treatment was shown to be helpful to AIDS patients suffering from severe weight loss by increasing their appetite.
D.C.’s medical marijuana program is run by the Department of Health’s Division of Medical Marijuana and Integrative Therapy. Under rules established by the DOH, in order to become authorized to buy marijuana for medical purposes a patient must first obtain a written recommendation from his or her primary care physician.
“This recommendation must assert that the use of marijuana is medically necessary for the patient for the treatment of a qualifying medical condition or to mitigate the side effects of a qualifying medical treatment,” a statement on the DOH website says. The statement says the written recommendation must include the physician’s signature and license number.
The physician must then send that to the DOH. The patient is required to submit to the DOH a completed application form that shows proof of residency in D.C. and include a photo copy of a government issued identification document such as a driver’s license. A $100 registration fee is also required, with a $25 fee for a patient that qualifies for low-income status.
One D.C. patient who spoke to the Washington Blade about the process on condition that the patient not be identified said that in the recent past it took between two and four months for the DOH to process the patient’s application and send the needed medical card.
Under the city’s medical marijuana program, the medical card expires after one year and a new application must be submitted to have it renewed along with the $100 fee.
The patient that spoke to the Blade said only a few doctors in the city have the training or the desire to prescribe medical marijuana as a treatment for a medical condition.
“The waiting rooms are overfull and there’s a long time you have to wait to see the doctor,” said the patient.
“And then last year the Department of Health lost my paperwork so I had to go through the whole process again,” said the patient. “It’s just frustrating and annoying. And it’s way more cumbersome and way more bureaucratic than is necessary.”
Under changes made earlier this year, the DOH website now says applications for the medical card are processed within 30 business days.
Linda Green, owner of Anacostia Organics, one of six licensed medical marijuana dispensaries currently operating in the city, said the DOH last month began offering patients the option of submitting their application for the medical card online.
“The processing time has been cut down considerably,” she said. “The DOH says the process now can take just one week. They are saying it takes five to seven days to get your card,” added Green, who said she’s “very hopeful” that the streamlined process will encourage more patients in need of medical marijuana to enter the program.
The National Holistic Healing Center, another D.C. medical marijuana dispensary located near Dupont Circle, told the Blade in a statement there have been “considerable improvements to the process for obtaining a medical card.”
The statement, which doesn’t identify the person who wrote it, says National Holistic has patients who have received their medical card from the DOH in two to three weeks through the online application process.
Green of Anacostia Organics and the National Holistic statement said there are a wide range of different types of cannabis, the preferred name for marijuana by the dispensaries, from which a patient can choose to best meet their medical needs. Experts at the dispensaries will help the patient select the type best for them, some of which are inhaled, ingested, or absorbed through the skin.
DOH spokesperson Alison Reeves told the Blade in a statement the processing time for a medical marijuana card may vary from patient to patient. She said an incomplete patient application form can result in “increased processing time.”
She said the time of year a patient submits their application may also be a factor in the timing. She noted that the largest number of applications are submitted between February and April, with processing time possibly made longer during that peak period.
“It is our policy to process applications and issue cards within 30 business days, however processing time is normally much faster,” Reeves said. “For example, in the first quarter of this year the average processing time for completed applications was 8.5 business days – six days for electronic applications and 11 days for paper applications,” she said.
About nine months ago, according to Reeves, the DOH began accepting credit card payments.
“Originally, many banks would not allow this for any marijuana activities,” she told the Blade. “This change allowed patients to submit and pay online, which greatly decreased processing time.”
District of Columbia
Man charged with anti-gay assault in D.C. accepts plea offer
Community service offered in exchange for dismissing hate crime charge
A Germantown, Md., man arrested by D.C. police on a charge of simple assault with a hate crime designation for allegedly assaulting a gay man while using “homophobic slurs” has agreed to an offer by prosecutors to plead guilty to simple assault without the hate crime designation and with the promise of having the charge dismissed if he completes, among other requirements, 48 hours of community service work.
Dean Edmundson, 26, standing beside his attorney, officially accepted the offer of a Deferred Sentencing Agreement at an Aug. 18 status hearing in D.C. Superior Court after Senior Judge Hiram Puig-Lugo explained the details of the agreement and confirmed Edmundson’s decision to waive his right to a trial.
Among other things, the judge said the agreement offered by prosecutors with the Office of the United States Attorney for D.C. includes the requirement that he successfully completes 48 hours of community service work, stays away from the victim of the assault, writes a letter of apology to the victim, and does not violate any other laws or get into trouble for the next 12 months.
Puig-Lugo then announced he scheduled a sentencing hearing for Edmundson for Aug. 18, 2027, at which time a determination will made on whether he has fulfilled all the requirements under the agreement and whether the simple assault charge will be dismissed. The judge added that if it is determined that Edmundson did not fulfil the terms of the agreement the charge would remain in place and he could be sentenced to a possible maximum penalty of 180 days in jail and a $1,000 fine.
Edmundson, who appeared in court wearing a business suit with a dress shirt and tie, was released on his own recognizance following his arrest by D.C. police on Feb. 7, 2026.
Police and court records show he was initially charged by arresting officers with simple assault with a hate crime designation. In a statement announcing the arrest, D.C. police said, “On Saturday, Feb. 7, 2026, at approximately 7:45 p.m. the victim and suspect were in the 1500 block of 14th Street, Northwest. The suspect requested a ‘high five’ from the victim. The victim declined and kept walking,” the statement says.
A follow-up arrest affidavit filed by police states that Edmundson followed the victim and called him “bald, ugly, and gay,” and then “pushed the victim with both hands, shoving them, causing the victim to feel the force of the push.” The affidavit adds, “The victim stated that they felt offended and that they were also gay.”
According to the court records, the Office of the U.S. Attorney filed its official charge of simple assault against Edmunson on Feb. 9 without the hate crime designation. The office has not responded to a request by the Washington Blade for its reason for dropping the hate crime designation. The office has also not immediately responded to a follow-up inquiry from the Blade this week asking if prosecutors consulted the victim to obtain the victim’s thoughts about the plea offer.
The Blade, which has a policy of not disclosing the identify of crime victims in cases like this without their consent, could not immediately obtain contact information to reach the victim for comment.
Court records show that Edmundson rejected an earlier plea agreement offer by prosecutors and he was scheduled for a non-jury trial on Aug. 18. The records show his attorney filed a motion earlier this month asking the judge to convert the trial into status hearing on that same day after his client accepted the Deferred Sentencing Agreement offer by the U.S. Attorney’s office. The judge approved the motion without objection from prosecutors.
Virginia
Winsome Earle-Sears ‘Life and Marriage Tour’ to include Northern Va. stops
Voters to consider marriage equality, reproductive rights referenda in November
Former Virginia Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears has announced her campaign against efforts to enshrine marriage equality and reproductive rights in the state constitution will make several stops in Northern Virginia.
Her “Life and Marriage Tour” will include stops in Manassas, Winchester, and Harrisonburg. Earle-Sears said the “Life and Marriage Tour” will also travel to Virginia Beach, Lynchburg, Roanoke, Charlottesville, and other cities across Virginia “throughout September and October.”
The announcement did not include specific dates.
“Virginia, you’ve been asking where the Life and Marriage Tour is headed — here’s a look at our current tour locations,” she said on X on Tuesday. “We’ll be traveling across the commonwealth throughout September and October, and we’re still building the journey.”
Current Gov. Abigail Spanberger, a Democrat, last November defeated Earle-Sears, a Republican, in the race to succeed Republican Glenn Youngkin.
Voters in 2006 approved the Marshall-Newman Amendment, which defined marriage in Virginia as between a man and a woman.
Same-sex couples have been able to legally marry in Virginia since 2014. Youngkin a decade later signed a bill that codified marriage equality in state law.
Two successive legislatures must approve a proposed constitutional amendment before it can go to the ballot.
Spanberger signed bills that finalized the marriage equality and reproductive rights referenda’s language.
The referenda will take place on Nov. 3.
The Comings & Goings column is about sharing the professional successes of our community. We want to recognize those landing new jobs, new clients for their business, joining boards of organizations and other achievements. Please share your successes with us at [email protected].
Congratulations to Carla Lester, LICSW on her new position as Chief Program Officer with SMYAL. Upon accepting the position she said, “SMYAL deeply aligns with my passion for honoring, protecting, and upholding the rights of all individuals, particularly LGBTQ+ youth and others who have been historically underserved, to belong to communities that affirm their identities, treat them with dignity and respect, and support their well-being. At this point in my career, I was ready to transition to an organization whose mission more closely reflected my values and was rooted in the community. SMYAL offered the opportunity to serve both an organization and a population whose mission not only resonates deeply with me but also intersects with my own multiple identities.”
Lester is a healthcare and human services executive with more than 20 years of experience in behavioral health, federal and state health insurance programs, housing, health care, education, and community-based services. She has held senior roles at Carelon Behavioral Health, Pathways to Housing and N Street Village, leading clinical programs, Housing First initiatives, homeless outreach, trauma-informed services, and integrated case management.
She earned master’s degrees in Social Work and Divinity, and maintains active clinical social work licenses in D.C. and Maryland.
Congratulations also to Tad Czyzewski on his new position as Chief Development Officer at SMYAL. On accepting the position, he said, “While I’ve spent much of my nonprofit career in the arts, the current social and political environments made me want to apply my skills and passion more directly toward supporting and strengthening our community. SMYAL and this role felt like the right place to do that.”
Czyzewski brings more than two decades of experience in nonprofit leadership and strategy, fundraising, and business development. Prior to joining SMYAL, he served for eight years as executive director of The Choral Arts Society of Washington, where he led fundraising, financial management, and community engagement. During his tenure, he helped raise more than $15 million in contributed revenue. He guided the organization through a major rebrand and the COVID-19 pandemic.
Prior to that Czyzewski served as Business and Development Director for Washington Revels, and held leadership and advisory roles with Chorus America, the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, and the National Endowment for the Arts. He began his career in the corporate sector, including at Capital One, where his work in product development and marketing contributed to new financial products and more than $2 billion in deposits.
Czyzewski is a lifelong musician, has performed professionally as a classical singer, including with the Washington National Opera and the National Symphony Orchestra.
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