The Best DC Recreational Dispensary
Is the weed in Maryland illegal?
The state of legal cannabis in Maryland has come a long way over the past decade or so. At the start of the 2010s, the state of Maryland had the fifth-highest overall arrest rate for weed possession, primarily due to over-policing in inner-city communities like Baltimore, in the whole nation. Maryland lawmakers tried and failed to introduce and pass bills that would legalize recreationally many times, only for those bills to be vetos, shot down, or just left to die on the Governor’s desk. These days, things look very, very different.
Maryland state lawmakers recently introduced measures that would legalize recreational use via ballot measure in November, which is likely to pass because a wide majority of Maryland residents support legalization (along with the vast majority of U.S. citizens), the state has a thriving medical cannabis program that provides patients with cannabis products, and both Republicans and Democrats have proposed bills to federally legalize. It’s clear that legal cannabis is the way of the future not just in Maryland, but in the U.S. as a whole. That’s a whole lot of progress in just ten years. Despite all of that forward progress, however, it’s often still less legally questionable, less expensive, and easier to just hop in your care and drive to D.C. to get your weed. Let’s dig into why that is!
Since then, however, that forward progress in the right direction when it comes to marijuana law has stalled out and, depending on who you ask, might even be moving in the wrong direction. That leaves many, especially those in Northern Virginia cities and towns like Arlington, Fairfax, Alexandria, Falls Church, Vienna, Manassas, Richmond, and Tysons that are only a stone’s throw away from D.C., wondering where the best place to get some cannabis of their own is exactly.
Is the weed in Maryland illegal?
Well, it depends on what type of cannabis you’re looking for and what you consider to fit the definition of “illegal.” We know that’s less of an answer and more of an annoying semantic riddle, but hear us out on this.
While recreational cannabis is still, by the letter of the law, illegal and not permitted either by the state of Maryland or the U.S. federal government, that hasn’t stopped Maryland and 36 other U.S. states and territories from allowing their citizens some kind of access to legal weed in some form or another.
The state of Maryland, for example, has passed and signed into law rules that decriminalize possession of cannabis and marijuana paraphernalia, like rolling papers, bongs, or pipes, and established a well-run, regulated medical cannabis program with medical cannabis dispensaries all over the state. But with all of that in mind, it’s STILL technically not legal to buy anything aside from vapes, edibles, concentrates, or any other type of cannabis product from anywhere other than a licensed Maryland medical cannabis dispensary.
Recreational vs Medical Weed In Maryland
In Maryland, there are really only two types of weed; the cannabis products that patients can get from medical cannabis dispensaries and the recreational products, which are still technically illegal in many ways.
So let’s break it down using those two handy categories.
First, we’ll dig into the medical side. While it’s true that legal medical-use cannabis has existed in Maryland since 2003, the modern medical cannabis program was born thanks to then-Governor Martin O’Malley. He signed into law legislation that would allow for the creation of state-level organizations like the Maryland Medical Cannabis Commission, or MMCC for short, who would then play the framework for the upstart medical program only about a year later. Since then, medical marijuana dispensaries have opened all over the state, mostly centering around Northern Maryland population centers like Baltimore, Columbia, Aspen Hill, and National Harbor, with outliers in spots like Catonsville, Hagerstown, Bethesda, Rockville, and Annapolis to round things out.
These Maryland dispensaries provide certified patients or caregivers with a wide array of options like edibles, concentrates, vapes, tinctures, topicals, and standard cannabis flower, just to name a few. If you’re new to the world of legal cannabis and are just looking to get your feet wet, we recommend a high-CBD product to help you ease in.
On the other side of the coin, we have any cannabis products that don’t come from a certified Maryland dispensary or wellness center. While it’s true that cannabis has been decriminalized in the Old Line State, all of that cannabis is still technically illegal.
Despite then-Maryland Governor O’Malley approving and signing into law legislation that decriminalized weed possession and allows for anyone in Maryland over age 21 who is caught with less than 10 grams of weed to, instead of being locked up like before, only be subject to a minor fine and attend a drug education program, similar to the way a civil offense like a traffic ticket would be treated. While the fines aren’t exactly nothing to sneeze at, with penalties not exceeding $100 for first-time offenders, $250 for second-time offenders, and $500 for third or subsequent offenders.
Simply out, while the fines and consequences for getting caught with small amounts of cannabis might not be enough to deter you, using or buying cannabis recreationally in Maryland is still technically against the law and can cause you some expensive headaches in you’re not discreet about it. And with the high prices of some of the product you’ll find in dispensaries around the state, it’s best to not spend all of your extra cash paying those fines for possession and public use.
How Much Does Weed Cost In Maryland?
If you’re not keeping a close eye on your bank account when you’re buying your medical cannabis, that final price tag at the register can add up very quickly. While medical cannabis product prices were high back when the program first got started, things have settled down a bit since more and more medical cannabis dispensaries have opened since. These days, prices for medical cannabis products in areas of Northern Maryland like, for example, Bethesda, Baltimore, and Rockville are about on par with the dispensaries here in D.C. There are some key differences between Maryland and the District of Columbia that may complicate things, however!
What is the average price for a gram of weed in Southern Maryland?
While it’s true that prices for a gram of medical cannabis from most Northern Maryland dispensaries are about the same as the average price throughout the rest of the country, there’s a few pricey factors that you’re not factoring in when off the top of your head.
For example, the Maryland Medical Cannabis Commission, or MMCC for short, charges patients to get and renew their medical cannabis cards. While this isn’t exactly a scandalous revelation since pretty much every medical program in the country has some financial barrier of entry, those costs often aren’t thought of when it comes to budgeting by most people. Just getting in to see a certified MMJ doctor and getting recommended for your card in the first place can cost each prospective patient a few hundred bucks, and that’s not even counting in cost of each of the the medical cannabis products at the medical cannabis dispensary. That’s not the only wrinkle to consider, however.
Maryland medical patients have limits placed on them for how much cannabis they can actually buy every 30 days. While the standard amount typically recommended by Maryland’s certified cannabis doctors is around 120 grams of dried flower, doctors can recommend how much they think that particular patient needs to treat their various conditions. So if you go through the effort of paying to see a doctor and getting your card, you’re still limited in how much medical cannabis you can legally buy. There’s good news, however. When you do hit those limits, you can always hop in your car and head over to Gifted Curators in D.C. to pick up as much cannabis product that money can buy.
What are some reasons someone might want to buy weed in Northern Maryland?
So with all the issues we’ve already laid out regarding how legally tricky and expensive it can be to get your hands on some legal cannabis in Maryland, it doesn’t really make sense not to just come to D.C. to get your cannabis instead, right?
After all, D.C. allows paying customers to stop into recreational dispensaries littered throughout the city and be gifted some cannabis without worrying about legal gray areas. They can just head into a dispensary like Gifted Curators and browse the massive variety of product options with help from an expert budtender, take advantage of our specials and daily deals for discounts on your edibles, concentrates, vapes, tinctures, topicals, pre-rolls, and dried cannabis flower, or just skip the line altogether by placing an order online ahead of time for either delivery or curbside pick-up. And the best part? They can do this all legally without the need for a medical marijuana card!
So no matter if you’re based in Abington, Crofton, Edgewater, Gaithersburg, or pretty much anywhere else in the great state of Maryland, you always have easy and convenient access to as much legal cannabis as you want right over the border in the nation’s capital!