Recreational marijuana has dominated headlines out of Washington DC this week, as the use, possession and home cultivation of cannabis became legal in the city on Thursday.
But lost in the all the hype is a serious issue for DC’s existing medical marijuana industry: Dispensaries can’t seem to find enough MMJ to meet demand.
The city’s three dispensaries have been forced to limit the amount of cannabis DC’s 2,500 card-holding patients can buy due to a shortage of medical marijuana, according to the Washington Post. In some cases, they are even turning people away.
The scarcity of MMJ is partly due to the fact that the city council last year relaxed rules for obtaining a prescription, which boosted the number of users and cut into supply.
The shortage of MMJ is causing many patients to go back to the black market, according to the Post.