In D.C., social dispensaries are becoming the new bars

How it works: Medical cannabis retailers can apply for three permits that allow on-site use, from outdoor "summer gardens" where you can smoke a joint to "education tastings" where you might take a gummy before meditation.

• Permitting rolled out in 2024, and it's just starting to show up on the ground as a new wave of cannabis-fueled hangouts and wellness studios.
• Not quite Amsterdam café culture, but edging toward San Francisco–style lounges, which some of D.C.'s rules were modeled on.
• ABCA tells Axios nearly a dozen permits have been issued.

Driving the news: Higher Ground, the city's largest "safe-use consumption" space, just opened in Ivy City with room for around 130 guests.

• The 20,000-square-foot indoor/outdoor complex — formerly One Eight Distillery — basically swaps booze for bud.
• Where stills once stood, there's now a state-of-the-art cultivation center visible behind the bar.
• A retail shop sells pre-rolls and gummies instead of whiskey.
• A former liquor cabinet is stocked with heady glass pieces — some worth $100,000.

Patrons can consume edibles and tinctures or smoke indoors and on the patio, where co-owner Robbie Martin plans movie nights, morning yoga and food truck pop-ups — not unlike nearby breweries.

What they're saying: "My ethos has always been cannabis hospitality — I never wanted to open a shop to sell as many eighths as possible," Martin tells Axios.

• His team comes from the restaurant world, and the goal at Higher Ground is to make an "experiential" space — with a sleek members' lounge and murals by local artists.

The big picture: Martin calls the shift from distillery to dispensary a "microcosm of a broader trend" — people drinking less and consuming more cannabis, especially millennials and Gen Z.

• "But that leaves a gap socially," he says. "Especially on the East Coast, there aren't many cannabis-friendly third spaces for people to build community around. That's what we're trying to create."

Zoom in: As alcohol sales soften, hospitality vets are betting on cannabis.

• Greg Casten of Fish & Fire Food Group (Tony & Joe's, et al.) spent $2.7 million on an Eckington warehouse he's turning into a golf simulator and dispensary.
• A cannabis consumer himself, he sees the shift firsthand: 30 people lined up at a dispensary on a Friday afternoon, about twice as big as his bar's crowd.
• "Kids aren't drinking as much," Casten says. "And in the bar industry, you want youth at your bar. That attracts the next age group with more income."

Enter the golf-dispensary concept — "a fun way to look at cannabis."

• The project is still tied up in permitting, but the vision is clear: membership-based golf bays, TVs, indoor/outdoor consumption areas.

Zoom out: D.C.'s on-site consumption laws set it apart in the region — in Maryland, for example, customers can't even handle products before buying.

• "As more barriers come down and new hospitality concepts come online, I do think you'll see more tourism for it," Martin says.
• The city is also expanding the offerings, with legislation underway for cannabis drink production.

Between the lines: As with all D.C. weed sales, you need to be a certified "patient" to partake. Anyone 21-plus can self-certify that you'll use cannabis for medical purposes — no doctor's note needed.

The intrigue: Not all of it is social-first. At Aligned DC in Tenleytown, cannabis looks more like self-care.

• Owner Sunni Love offers yoga, meditation and sound baths — with cannabis optional. Those who partake can opt for low-dose (5 mg) gummies or infused teas.

Her goal: Introduce cannabis "in a mindful way that's not all around numbing or getting high."

• Since adding on-site consumption last year, she's seen more cannabis-curious customers — especially for solo sessions.
• "My goal is to help people explore different ways to regulate their nervous system in this crazy world and city we live in," Love says.