IPFS News Link • Drugs and Medications
Green rush, grey market: How free weed is firing up D.C.'s pot 'gifting economy'
• http://www.cbc.caFor an asking price of $50 for a grape lollipop, at least the vendor tossed in some locally grown goodies. The free samples, given away with a handshake in the hazy basement of an after-hours Ethiopian restaurant, came sealed in a plastic baggie — 3.5 grams of downright skunky marijuana buds.
The customer quickly disregarded the candy for his "free gift."
"Just a regular lollipop," he said over a steady thrum of grimy hip hop.
"And this," he said, dangling his complimentary baggie, "is ganja!"
So it goes in stoner-tolerant Washington, D.C.
Even after U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions reversed Obama-era guidelines over the holidays, rolling back a policy that helped shield from federal enforcement marijuana use in states where the substance was decriminalized, a green rush is booming for pot products in the District.
It comes courtesy of shrewd distributors who have cultivated a successful "gifting economy" to game restrictions on retail weed.