Pot Dealer Seeks Retail Space in Glover Park

Kahama West LLC has requested a medical cannabis license to sell marijuana at 2208 Wisconsin Avenue, the mixed-use building in Glover Park constructed in 2020 with ground level retail space. Pot sales are so profitable in Washington DC that there have been multiple attempts at illegal retail locations in the neighborhood, while this is the first to do business - potentially - as a licensed dealer under DC’s medical cannabis dispensary rules.

Kahama West is an individual residing in Petworth who has been involved in pot sales for years in DC. His LLC was created in 2021 and the license was revoked in 2025 for non-filing and non-payment, yet he submitted his license application to the DC Alcoholic Beverage and Cannabis Administration (ABCA) with a posting date of 6/26/2026. Kahama has operated under various trade names and LLC’s over the past few years: Lighthouse Smoke Shop, Taste of Jamaica, Ocho Rios, Greenfield Garden, and West Logic Logistics (a cryptic “delivery” company). Greenfield still has an active retail website. All these company licenses have since been revoked by the Department of Licensing and Consumer Protection. In 2024 he submitted a “social equity” application with ABCA for Greenfield Garden. Social equity is an application category, under the Medical Cannabis Amendment Act of 2022, for business people who claim to have been harmed by marijuana criminalization in the past, such as being incarcerated or having a family member incarcerated for a drug conviction. The applicant also needs to hold at least 50% equity in the business. ABCA sets aside 50% of new cannabis licenses for social equity applicants. An approved licensee benefits from a 75% reduction in application and licensing fees for three years.

Not so fast on that license: the “fly in the ointment; the monkey in the wrench; the pain in the a**” (Die Hard quote) that Kahama now faces is Glover Park’s Advisory Neighborhood Commission 3B. ANC’s have significant weight with ABCA in their opinions on drug and alcohol license applications. ANC3B reviewed the case at their July meeting and decided to submit a letter to ABCA opposing the approval of the application. Former ANC commissioner Jackie Blumenthal testified that Kahama West is the brother of a man who owns three other retail pot shops in DC and that he might be a front man for a “straw transfer” so that the family can operate more retail locations than the law allows. ANC3B sent a unanimously-approved letter of protest to ABCA in mid-August. A roll-call hearing took place at ABCA on 8/31 in which the applicant was presented with the grounds for the protest. The applicant then has 5 weeks to negotiate with the ANC or prepare a response for the ABCA protest hearing scheduled for October 7th. The protest hearing is open to the public online.

So far, NO legal marijuana retailers have been approved in Glover Park. Due to the extreme profitability of illegal drug sales, many have tried to push pot illegally in Glover Park over the years (often under the false loophole of the Initiative 71 “gifting” rule) and all have faced the consequences of the law:

2016: four men were arrested in a drug raid at the upper level of 2319 Wisconsin (over the former Tennis Zone) for an illegal pot gifting operation. Three received suspended sentences while one got jail time.

2018: Nine people were arrested at 2408 Wisconsin (former Mason Inn Sports Bar, still vacant) for a pot distribution event. Two were Montgomery County MD public school teachers or administrators.

2019: Café Romeo at 2132 Wisconsin (now Aladdin kabobs and gyros) was closed by the Health Department for various code violations, and their not-so-disguised “420 pizza” parties to distribute marijuana. The shut-down was handled quietly.

2022: Laliguras, the Nepali restaurant that struggled for years to make ends meet, closed after a failed attempt to sublet the space to a mysterious traveling nightclub operator. Then a marijuana retailer sought to lease the space but failed.

2023: Elevated Lounge applied for a medical marijuana license at 2428 Wisconsin above Moge Tee. They were opposed by ANC3B but opened for business anyway, advertising openly online under the false loophole of Initiative 71. Later on, the biz seemed to be rebranded as DC Dazed Wellness but then ABCA and DC Metro Police Department shut it down in 2025 for unlicensed pot sales.

2025: A smoke and vape shop named Glover Tobacco opened at 2319 Wisconsin (this time the street level space) and claimed they were not going to sell marijuana. They got busted and shut down a few months later by ABCA and MPD for selling marijuana. After paying a fine and promising again that there was no way in heck they would be selling marijuana (that can easily be detected) they re-opened. The owner had operated a number of illegal marijuana shops in DC and is currently accused of crimes and facing court action.

If you wish to protest the Kahama West LLC application for a marijuana shop below the apartments and next to Architessa at 2208 Wisconsin Ave in Glover Park, well you are too late for a formal protest submission to ABCA (though ANC3B has taken care of it). Yet, you can submit your two cents to ANC3B at anc3bmail@gmail.com, or to ABCA at abca.legal@dc.gov or to Kahama’s lawyer at jmcgowan@kinnermcgowan.com or join the ABCA protest hearing on October 7th at 1:30pm livestream on YouTube here.

If you wish to file a complaint anonymously about an illegal pot sale operation, you can do so with ABCA online at their complaint portal here.

Chris Jones