Tobacco King opened the smoke shop next to the Miracle Theater earlier this year.
Alcohol/Cannabis Board Rejects Barracks Row Legal Weed Shop Application
by Larry Janezich
Posted Monday, April 24, 2025
According to ANC6B Commissioner David Sobelsohn, the DC Alcoholic Beverage and Cannabis Administration (ABCA) today dismissed the application for a medical marijuana license by Aloha/Tobacco King at 539 8th Street, SE, the former location of La Vagna restaurant.
Sobelsohn reported that the applicants failed to show up at today’s ABCA Roll Call Hearing at which those protesting the license have an opportunity to explain their opposition. Opponents, on the other hand, did show up, and they included Sobelsohn, ANC Commissioners Sam Pastore and Anna Krebs, ANC6B’s ABCA Committee chair Ellen Opper-Weiner, and District Montessori director Anjelina Keating.
Sobelsohn said “Tobacco King’s application troubled not only my constituents who live close to that location, but also troubled several important nearby 7th Street, SE, institutions that have programs for children: the Montessori School, the Capitol Hill Arts Workshop, & the Mormon Church. Our ANC had made very clear to the applicant that our community was united in opposing a cannabis retailer so close to our children. Thankfully, Tobacco King got the message. No one attended the hearing for Aloha/Tobacco King. As a result, ABCA dismissed the application. For the time being at least, we need not worry about a cannabis retailer so close to our children.”
Aloha was intended to be an upstairs cannabis retail space owned by Tobacco King, a tobacco/smoke shop on the first floor. There has been evidence that Tobacco King was dispensing cannabis in anticipation of receiving a license legalizing the operation. The application was been opposed at the ANC Committee level as well as by the full ANC since it would permit Aloha to operate as a dispensary within 400 feet of a school, which is banned by city statute.
CAPITOL HILL CORNER 
Happy to see the ABCA Board doing the right thing!