Rabbi opened a medical marijuana store in Washington

Photo: video frame

“Selling marijuana is a holy job,” says a rabbi with thirty years of experience who now lives in Washington.

As he says "Currently,“, he opened a family business near his home - a dispensary selling medical cannabis. The business already has more than one and a half thousand clients. However, earlier this year, US Attorney General Jeff Sessions decided not to follow the Obama administration's laissez faire policy when it comes to federal regulation of marijuana production and sales in the states. Now, the rabbi says, they live in fear that federal authorities could “visit” the dispensary at any moment. And there are hundreds of similar businesses in twenty-nine states of the country. Should they really be afraid of raids and criminalization of marijuana?

Photo: video frame

Rabbi Jeffrey Kahn led various congregations for thirty years. The main thing in his work, he always considered helping families suffering from the HIV / AIDS epidemic. Now he is the owner of Washington's only family business selling medical cannabis. The rabbi says that for him it is a logical continuation of the work that he took up decades ago.

“I know what it’s like to need medical marijuana,” says Jeffrey Kahn. “My father-in-law suffered from multiple sclerosis, he had painful spasms, and only marijuana moderated the pain. But he found it with difficulty. It is now legal to provide people with access to quality medicinal cannabis. Yes, for me this is sacred work.”

In Washington, the law on the legalization of medical marijuana was adopted as early as 1998, but the US Congress, which holds the highest authority in the Federal District of Columbia, blocked it. And only in 2013, Washington residents were able to buy medical marijuana by legal means. Today in the US capital there are five special centers for the sale of weed for medicinal purposes.

Photo: video frame

This clinic, where you can buy medical cannabis, is located in one of the undistinguished regions of Washington. People are allowed here in small groups and only in the presence of a special medical certificate issued only by doctors from Washington. And the building itself is equipped with security systems.

Unlike some other states, where the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes is permitted only in the presence of certain diseases, in Washington everything is decided by agreement between the patient and the doctor.

Jeffrey Kahn says his dispensary's clientele ranges from newborns to seniors in their nineties. According to Kahn, cannabis is needed to treat children with epilepsy, overcome nausea during chemotherapy, get rid of chronic pain, and cure depression. “Most people come here after trying every possible medication and nothing has worked for them,” he adds.

Photo: video frame

At the rabbi's dispensary, patients are offered a whole menu: weed for every taste and health condition. All this was made possible by the laissez faire policy of the Obama administration. It stipulated that federal prosecutors would not touch the growing legal industry in the states unless participants in the market violated federal laws, such as by selling pot to minors. As a result, twenty-nine US states and the District of Columbia have legalized marijuana to some extent. However, in January of this year, US Attorney General Jeff Sessions decided not to follow the Obama administration's policy. Federal authorities can now intervene in state affairs when it comes to marijuana.

“The new regulation can be described in one word – confusion. Until Congress passes legislation that would exclusively regulate the production, possession and sale of marijuana by state governments, businesses will suffer from uncertainty. After all, weed is safer than alcohol. In addition, in recent years we have seen that thanks to the legalization of marijuana, cannabis is moving from the hands of criminals to the hands of honest businessmen who pay taxes. People, in turn, gained access to a high-quality product,” says the organization’s public relations manager Marijuana Policy Project Morgan Fox.

Aaron Gregg, a Washington Post journalist who has followed the multibillion-dollar cannabis business, says even with a special effort from the federal government, the business won't be shut down.

“It's hard to stop an industry that's thriving in half the country,” Gregg says. - The income is huge. In the eight states and Washington, D.C., where marijuana is legal for both medicinal and recreational purposes, budgets would lose a significant amount if cannabis was criminalized. For example, in Colorado, businesses in this area are firmly on their feet.”

Colorado Republican Senator Corey Gardner responded with a threat to Sessions’s message: if the Minister of Justice does not change his mind, Gardner will block all further appointments to the Justice Ministry.

Here's how Mason Tvert, vice president of the law firm, comments on the current situation. VS Strategies from Colorado: “Revenues from the legalization of marijuana have exceeded all expectations of Colorado authorities. Taxes from marijuana sales – tens of millions of dollars – are used by local authorities to build roads, support education and healthcare, and help the homeless.”

However, so far the federal government does not have a clear plan to “intervene” in state policies regarding regulation of the cannabis market. Jeffrey Kahn says they're left wondering: Will the government begin raiding marijuana dispensaries? “We do business in Washington itself, it costs them nothing to come here and destroy everything that we have created over the years,” he shares his fears.

This dispensary already has one and a half thousand clients. The rabbi, along with his wife and two sons, work here every day except Shabbat. They will soon open another center for the sale of medical marijuana - in Maryland, where this business is just beginning to develop. “I always say: no matter what, we will continue our business,” says Kahn.

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