The D.C. Council on Tuesday unanimously approved a bill to help the city’s medical marijuana dispensaries, some of which say they have seen a steep drop-off in business this year because many patients who saw their medical marijuana cards expire during the pandemic have not renewed them yet.

The emergency bill allows patients whose cards expired since Mar. 2020 to continue using them to purchase medical marijuana through the end of Jan. 2022. It also creates a new two-year medical marijuana card (instead of the current one-year card), and increases the amount of marijuana a patient can buy at a time to eight ounces, up from four.

The bill introduced by Chairman Phil Mendelson addressed a significant drop-off in the number of registered patients in the program over the summer. In late July, the city’s public health emergency ended, along with an emergency provision of the law that had allowed people whose cards expired during the pandemic to continue purchasing medical marijuana. According to Mendelson’s office, more than 6,000 of the 12,000 registered patients in the program lost access to medical marijuana thereafter. Some dispensaries said business was cut in half in a matter of weeks.

“We had a wonderful increase during the COVID period where cannabis went from illegal to essential and patients were able to use their cannabis cards with expired date. Definitely our patient base dropped as a result of the emergency rule coming to a close,” said Dr. Chanda Macias, owner of the National Holistic Healing Center, a medical marijuana dispensary in Dupont Circle. “It’s just nice when you see all the stars align and you see that patient access is continuing to expand, so definitely on my high note right now, no pun intended.”

Debate over the bill was minimal on Tuesday, but that wasn’t the case in the lead up to the vote last week. An original version of the bill Mendelson introduced also included provisions that would have ramped up civil enforcement against marijuana “gifting” stores and delivery services, which have grown in number in recent years and have been accused of stealing business from the regulated medical marijuana program. These stores and services sell products like stickers and food for high prices and offer customers a ‘gift’ of marijuana, taking advantage of a provision of D.C. law that allows people to give each other small amounts of marijuana. D.C. officials say the stores and services are operating illegally, and police raids of them are common.

But after an outcry from operators of the stores and their advocates, Mendelson dropped the enforcement provisions from the bill — though he warned on Tuesday that the issue would eventually have to be addressed.

“Since the usual illegal businesses don’t follow the same rules as other licensees, they are driving cultivators, producers, and retailers out of business. After all, how can you compete with someone who is not playing by the same rules you are bound to, such as ensuring quality, paying sales taxes, and following other regulatory requirements?” he said.

Councilmember Janeese Lewis George (D-Ward 4) thanked Mendelson for removing the enforcement provisions from the bill, saying they need a fuller public airing. She said lawmakers should consider the fate of the gifting stores as it consider a bill that would legalize sales of marijuana for recreational use. A public hearing on the bill is set for later this month, though passing it into law will have to wait until Congress lifts a six-year-old prohibition on the city legalizing sales.

“I think the process really matters here, especially given that the criminalization of marijuana has disproportionately harmed Black Americans nationwide, and now we have a unique opportunity to use this product to empower Black Washingtonians,” she said.

The council’s bill to legalize marijuana sales was also written by Mendelson, and includes provisions granting licenses to people who have been impacted by the war on drugs or live in low-income areas, and steers tax revenue from sales to those parts of D.C.