Medical marijuana dispensaries in Berkeley will likely start giving out free pot

Medical marijuana dispensaries in Berkeley will likely start giving out free pot
(Image credit: Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)

The city council in Berkeley, California last week approved an ordinance that requires that low-income residents and the homeless receive free cannabis from medical marijuana dispensaries.

As the East Bay Express reports, the ordinance calls for dispensaries to give away 2 percent of the gross weight sold in a year to people who qualify for exemption from paying local fees and taxes as set by the city council. That translates to an income level of $32,000 a year for one person or $46,000 a year for a family of four. The marijuana also has to be the good stuff, "the same quality on average" as what is dispensed to others.

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.