The difference between buying weed in D.C., Maryland and Virginia (2024)

May 3, 2023 at 6:00 a.m. EDT

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Possessing 2 ounces or less of cannabis is legal in the District, but buying and selling weed is more complicated.

Although D.C. voters approved recreational marijuana use nearly a decade ago, Congress has consistently blocked the District’s ability to regulate and tax sales of the drug. Those roadblocks have led to a recreational gray market, where shops sell an unrelated good — a T-shirt, herbal tea, digital art — and offer a small amount of marijuana as a gift with purchase.

How the laws work

Initiative 71, approved by voters in 2014, allows adults 21 and older to legally possess up to 2 ounces of marijuana in D.C. and to grow their own flower at home.

To get around the federal restrictions on marijuana sales, enterprising shops have come up with the gifting system that they claim complies with the rules set up in Initiative 71, since customers are not directly paying for marijuana. Although advocates claim the workaround is legal, and these types of shops are common throughout D.C., local officials maintain that it is illegal to sell any amount of marijuana to another person.

D.C. also has a legal medical market that became easier to access in March, when the Medical Cannabis Amendment Act cleared the way for people 21 and older to self-certify that they have qualifying a medical condition without a doctor’s note.

What’s legal

What to know

Medical marijuana sales in the District incur a 6 percent sales tax — but there is an annual tax holiday in April that waives the tax at licensed medical dispensaries.

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Marylanders can buy and consume recreational cannabis. Businesses hoping to break into the state’s nascent recreational market can expect regulators to begin granting licenses by Jan. 1, 2024.

How the laws work

Maryland voters approved recreational weed in 2022. With little time to spare, Maryland lawmakers created a legal framework for a recreational cannabis market during the legislative session this winter, making it the only part of the DMV that has done so.

At first, only existing medical dispensaries that have applied for a recreational license will be able to sell the drug to people 21 and older. But by Jan. 1, the state will grant additional licenses to open up the recreational market with a special emphasis on minority-owned businesses and entrepreneurs from regions of the state that were disproportionately impacted by the war on drugs.

What’s legal

What to know

Maryland levied a 9 percent tax on marijuana sales that will fund the agency’s regulatory agency and also go toward several public health and social justice targets.

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Like D.C., Virginia currently has no legal market for marijuana sales, though that hasn’t stopped a gray market from operating in the state’s murky legal landscape.

Lawmakers established the Virginia Cannabis Control Authority to oversee the recreational cannabis market, but a legal market for recreational sales has been delayed by a political battle in the Capitol. Although some businesses have gone rogue to sell the drug in Virginia, a fully realized legal market appears to be stalled indefinitely.

How the laws work

Virginia became the first state in the South to legalize cannabis for personal use in 2021 when the General Assembly approved a 280-page bill that allowed for small amounts of marijuana possession within the state. Marijuana sales were authorized to begin Jan. 1, 2024, pending the creation of a regulatory structure for the market.

But recreational cannabis sales have been delayed as Virginia lawmakers have battled over what a legal market should or should not look like. And unlike in D.C., Virginia’s law specifies that giving marijuana as a gift with purchase of a legal good is not okay.

What’s legal

What to know

Possessing more than 1 ounce but less than 1 pound of cannabis can result in a $25 civil fine in Virginia. Having more than 1 pound of the drug is a felony.