For McDuffie, who moved to limit cultivation permits in Ward 5 after neighborhood representatives strongly opposed the influx of growers, it was important to ensure that grow houses are “equitably distributed across the city’s wards.” While he is a “strong supporter” of the medical marijuana program, the councilmember acknowledged that some of his constituents are not completely sold on the idea. “I have heard from residents who are concerned about the impact on neighborhoods and a potential chilling effect on community-serving amenities locating near these facilities,” McDuffie said.

Meanwhile, Morgan says that Capital City Care — which expects to open its dispensary on a busy stretch of North Capitol Street near Union Station to licensed customers in the coming weeks — intends to run a “quiet and discreet” grow facility. Travel to the company’s cultivation outpost, an aging, nondescript warehouse, and you’ll be hard pressed to find many signs of life, let alone business markings or even the faintest whiff of the work going on inside. The two other approved growers who have passed all the hurdles to begin actually putting plants in the ground also seem happy to do so incognito.

“The cultivation center is simply not a public business,” Morgan says. “It is a licensed facility to produce medicine exclusively for a small number of authorized dispensaries.”