The District’s newest medical cannabis dispensary opened in Ivy City over the weekend, adding another licensed provider to D.C.’s medical marijuana market ahead of the April 20 holiday.
Higher Ground held its grand opening Saturday in the 1100 block of Okie Street in Northeast, off New York Avenue.
Food trucks were parked outside the large 21,000-square-foot black industrial-looking building, which features a mural of a woman smoking.
General Manager Louie Mrad, who seemed to know most of the customers lined up outside, shook their hands and slapped their backs as he welcomed them to the grand opening.
The facility includes a medical treatment lounge and an on-site, seed-to-sale cultivation operation. Mrad told WTOP the space was designed to bring multiple aspects of medical cannabis production and use under one roof.
“We’re going to make this a very special place for everybody to come here. A destination,” Mrad told WTOP.
If D.C. legalizes cannabis, Mrad said he believes Higher Ground will become what he called an “international destination.”
As Mrad gave WTOP a tour, he pointed out high-end glassware in the private members area, that is worth between $80 and $100,000. “These are all art pieces of some of the finest glass blowing people in the country. And some of them are the very first ones that they’ve done,” Mrad said.
From the medicinal consumption lounge to the private members area, it has a look that could be compared to a fancy wine or cigar bar.
“This is an all-in-one place where you get to come in here and experience the plant,” Mrad said. “We have a window behind our bar, and that’s our flower room, where we have our highest genetics, where you get to experience the plant when the lights are on.”
Mrad said he immigrated to the United States from Lebanon at the age of 13 grew up in the D.C. area. He credited his business partners with helping bring Higher Ground together.
“Just trying to bring positivity to this community, that’s it, man,” Mrad said.
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