D.C. sued over weed shops near schools

Two community organizations are suing D.C. for granting medical marijuana licenses to dispensaries located near schools in the Palisades and Penn Quarter.

Why it matters: It's the latest shot fired in an ongoing battle between the District's Alcoholic Beverage and Cannabis Administration (ABCA), marijuana retailers, and parents and community leaders concerned about drug exposure.

Catch up quick: The city is busy expanding its medical marijuana program, creating a pathway for unlicensed weed "gifting shops" to become legally permitted or face crackdowns — a process that started last spring.

• Existing law says cannabis licensees — including dispensaries and growing facilities — can't operate within 300 feet of D.C. schools, day cares, and recreation centers. But there's an exception when schools are in commercial zones.
• Things have gotten heated in two such neighborhoods: Penn Quarter, where a dispensary plans to open across the street from the BASIS DC charter school. And the Palisades , where retailer Green Theory opened within 1,000 feet of five private schools in April.
• ABCA approved licenses for both, despite protests from parents and some neighborhood commissions and legislators.

Between the lines: A bill recently failed in the D.C. Council that would have closed the loophole and made the 300-plus-foot rule mandatory for all dispensaries.

Driving the news: The new group 1,000 Feet , formed after the Palisades incident, is pushing the city to ban dispensaries within 1,000 feet of schools.

• They filed the lawsuits in the D.C. Court of Appeals along with the Advisory Neighborhood Commission (ANC) for Penn Quarter, Chinatown, and downtown.
• The organizations "are asking the court to set aside ABCA's unlawful decisions to approve the licenses near the schools," according to a spokesperson.

The big picture: 1,000 Feet argues that D.C. has some of the most lax distance rules in the country for weed shops near schools, including San Francisco (600 ft.), and Denver (1,000 ft. by a straight line).

ABCA did not return Axios' request for comment.