How Virginia Could Smoke Out D.C.’s Cannabis Industry

The city’s retailers stand to lose cross-border business when Virginia begins recreational sales next summer.

Higher Ground

Higher Ground, a cannabis dispensary in Northeast D.C., is a converted distillery outfitted with leather couches and a café space. (Torrie Herrington for The Washington Sun)

Johannes Cassidy-Seyoum opened his medical cannabis business in D.C. just last year. Already, he’s bracing for a devastating blow to his customer base.

Across the Potomac, Virginia lawmakers in June approved the sale of recreational cannabis beginning in July 2027. The move will upend the region’s cannabis market, which has historically seen Virginians travel to D.C. to access the city’s permissive medical program in which anyone over 21 can “self-certify” as a user.

Cannabis business owners in D.C., who already took a hit when Maryland began recreational sales in 2023, fear for their livelihoods.