Before the legalization of marijuana, Ippolito-Shepherd could have called 911 and police would have criminally charged her neighbor; but now officers told her nothing could be done. She wrote to D.C. Council chair Phil Mendelson, who said the only way to rectify her problem would be to undo the legalization of marijuana.
So she took the dispute to court, claiming the smell is a public nuisance, and the trial, which began this week, is the first of its kind to make it this far in the District court.
Marijuana is now permitted in most states in some form, and that has brought complaints of the scent and possible secondhand-smoke exposure from neighbors of marijuana farms, dispensaries and smokers. The debates surfacing around the country have led to new restrictions on where…