There won’t be a medical marijuana cultivation center at this Benning Road NE location. Photo by @Patrick_Madden

After months of delays and determined community opposition, D.C. officials took the first concrete step towards implementing the city’s 14-year-old medical marijuana program today by granting licenses for six cultivation center sites, reports the Post.

As expected, the majority of the approved cultivation centers are in Ward 5—much to the chagrin of residents and civic organizations that pleaded against them. The sole remaining center is in Ward 7, but because of legislation recently approved by the D.C. Council at the behest of Councilmember Yvette Alexander (D-Ward 7), it won’t be able to stay at the location it was approved for.

The six approved locations were pared down from 28 applications submitted by hopeful cultivators late last year, 26 of them clustered in Ward 5 due to zoning restrictions. A six-person city panel further culled the list down to a small group of potential applicants, and the D.C. Council followed up by further limiting the number of cultivation center licenses in any one ward to six. (Yes, Montel Williams did get his cultivation center license.)

Though the granting of the licenses is a step forward for advocates of the medical marijuana program, the council’s recent actions have created uncertainty as to how sustainable it will be. The program’s rules originally envisioned 10 cultivation centers growing 95 plants each; with only six currently being licensed, some advocates worry that medical marijuana will be in short supply and be prohibitively expensive. The neighborhood battles over where the cultivation centers should go also portends difficulties for the dispensaries that will sell marijuana to qualifying patients—17 applications were filed for the five dispensary licenses, and they will be handed out by the city this summer.

License-holders now face the uphill battle of transforming old warehouses into cultivation centers equipped with state-of-the-art security systems before any marijuana can actually be planted. Williams’ location, for one, is a shell of a warehouse without a roof; it collapsed after a fire a few years ago.

Medical marijuana was originally approved by D.C. voters in 1998, but Congress prohibited the city from implementing the program for a decade. Once the prohibition was lifted, city officials went about crafting a set of rules creating a restrictive medical marijuana program for residents afflicted by cancer, HIV/AIDS, glaucoma, and multiple sclerosis. D.C. officials say that marijuana will be available by the end of 2012.

See all of our medical marijuana coverage here.

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