Buy a T-shirt, get a “gift” of weed: that’s how some stores operate in Washington, exploiting a perceived loophole to sidestep a ban on selling cannabis in the US capital.
The situation is but one example of the hazy legality surrounding marijuana in America, despite a trend in recent years towards normalization.
“Business is great!” declares Forest “Ty” Hayward, 41, the proud co-owner of Sneaker Headz — one of several “gifting shops” that have sprung up in a city now known for the everpresent fragrance of the flower.
Photo: AFP
Many are African-American owned, and are seeing a lively trade ahead of national marijuana day, which was held yesterday. Hayward sees his work as “a turning point for the Black community,” which historically suffered a disproportionate rate of cannabis convictions.
Since 2014, Washington residents have been allowed to possess paraphernalia and two ounces of weed, gift some to others, use it on private property and grow up to six plants. But Congress -- which approves the city’s budget -- has barred legal sales.
Instead stores sell items like T-shirts and stickers, starting at around US$30, with which customers also receive “presents” in the form of weed buds or gummies.
Photo: AFP
Cannabis was first outlawed at the federal level in 1937, “largely along racial reasoning, as well as to keep out immigrant workers or find ways to criminalize them,” said Morgan Fox, political director of advocacy group NORML.
The 1970s brought the “War on Drugs,” which likewise disproportionately hit minorities — before the medical marijuana movement took root in the 1990s, and in 2012 the first states made recreational cannabis legal for adults.
Today, 18 of the 50 US states plus Washington have legalized recreational weed use, while 37 have medical cannabis laws on the books. But since the drug remains a controlled substance at the national level, everyone involved is still technically breaking the law of the land.
The ban makes it difficult to access banking services, stops federal funding for medical marijuana research, prevents interstate commerce and federal regulation on best practices and protocols for marijuana.
What’s more, a future presidential administration unsympathetic to legalization could go after businesses and consumers even in states where the plant is legal.
Former president Donald Trump’s attorney general Jeff Sessions wanted to do this, but federal prosecutors ultimately decided it was a waste of their time.
LEGAL TROUBLE
Still, sticky situations can arise. After Canada fully legalized cannabis in 2018, US Customs and Border Patrol officers began issuing lifetime entry bans to Canadians who answered “yes” when asked at checkpoints if they had ever consumed the drug.
The same agency this month issued a warning to residents in New Mexico that it would continue to prosecute offenders caught with the substance at highway checkpoints, even after the state had legalized it.
Native American nations also encounter raids with the Bureau of Indian Affairs, despite the fact they live on nominally self-governing territories.
And in Washington, those caught smoking on federal grounds — including iconic monuments like the Lincoln Memorial — may have a run in with federal agents.
That’s why it’s vital to pass legislation at the national level, said Fox. The House of Representatives has passed some bills, including as recently as this month, but it has yet to be brought before the Senate, where Republican opposition would likely nix it.
Fox believes framing the issue in terms of states’ rights, personal freedoms, and increased tax revenue is the best way to win over Republicans, and younger conservatives who will eventually replace their elders are more cannabis friendly.
For now, the community is celebrating the progress they have won.
“I want to have a whole shebang, just remind everybody we’re still here to give back to the community, get high and have a wonderful life,” says Sneaker Headz’ co-owner Kashous Solomon, 22.
The canonical shot of an East Asian city is a night skyline studded with towering apartment and office buildings, bright with neon and plastic signage, a landscape of energy and modernity. Another classic image is the same city seen from above, in which identical apartment towers march across the city, spilling out over nearby geography, like stylized soldiers colonizing new territory in a board game. Densely populated dynamic conurbations of money, technological innovation and convenience, it is hard to see the cities of East Asia as what they truly are: necropolises. Why is this? The East Asian development model, with
June 16 to June 22 The following flyer appeared on the streets of Hsinchu on June 12, 1895: “Taipei has already fallen to the Japanese barbarians, who have brought great misery to our land and people. We heard that the Japanese occupiers will tax our gardens, our houses, our bodies, and even our chickens, dogs, cows and pigs. They wear their hair wild, carve their teeth, tattoo their foreheads, wear strange clothes and speak a strange language. How can we be ruled by such people?” Posted by civilian militia leader Wu Tang-hsing (吳湯興), it was a call to arms to retake
This is a deeply unsettling period in Taiwan. Uncertainties are everywhere while everyone waits for a small army of other shoes to drop on nearly every front. During challenging times, interesting political changes can happen, yet all three major political parties are beset with scandals, strife and self-inflicted wounds. As the ruling party, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is held accountable for not only the challenges to the party, but also the nation. Taiwan is geopolitically and economically under threat. Domestically, the administration is under siege by the opposition-controlled legislature and growing discontent with what opponents characterize as arrogant, autocratic
When Lisa, 20, laces into her ultra-high heels for her shift at a strip club in Ukraine’s Kharkiv, she knows that aside from dancing, she will have to comfort traumatized soldiers. Since Russia’s 2022 invasion, exhausted troops are the main clientele of the Flash Dancers club in the center of the northeastern city, just 20 kilometers from Russian forces. For some customers, it provides an “escape” from the war, said Valerya Zavatska — a 25-year-old law graduate who runs the club with her mother, an ex-dancer. But many are not there just for the show. They “want to talk about what hurts,” she
RSS