By Benjie Cooper
IG: @nuglifenews
YouTube: Lucid’s Vlog
Executing a search warrant, Washington DC Police shut down what they referred to as a marijuana pop-up event over the weekend, arresting a total of thirty people in the process.
The popularity of seshes, as the events are also known, has grown recently and Saturday’s raid was the latest incident in the Metropolitan PD’s crackdown on such gatherings.
The possession of up to two ounces of marijuana is legal in DC for adults 21 and older, but the sale of it is not. Seshes and their vendors have skirted the issue by giving away cannabis products with the purchase of items like hats, t-shirts, stickers, or food instead of selling it.
There was some tolerance for the events from law enforcement when they first started happening, but that has changed in recent months.
“We have received complaints because of smoke that is coming from these parties,” DC Police Chief Peter Newsham told WTOP. “If we find that someone is trying to circumvent the law or if someone is distributing marijuana for something of value, then we will be making arrests.”
But because the vendors aren’t technically selling any cannabis products, they say they are not breaking any laws.
“This just isn’t fair, expecially to low-income people who are just trying to make a living,” said local cannabis activist Adam Eidinger in an interview in April. “People are taking a huge risk to sell cannabis at these events. However, a lot of these people have a completely legitimate moral right to be doing what they’re doing.”
In addition to the arrests made at Saturday night’s event, officers also seized multiple pounds of cannabis flower, cannabis products, and more than $10,000 in cash.
