Diana Alvarez's son always wanted to go to college. After seeing how expensive it was to send him to college, she started working in a smoke shop to support her family. A month later, she bought the store and began offering cannabis to her clients to help pay for her son's tuition. The Lit City Smoke Shop was then born.
Based in the Columbia Heights neighborhood of Washington, D.C., Lit City is part of the District's thriving gifting industry. Nine years ago, the city passed Initiative 71, making it legal to possess up to two ounces of marijuana for personal use. The law also created a loophole allowing stores to "gift" their customers small amounts of weed as long as they also buy another item, often at an exorbitant price, such as an 11-word motivational speech for $60 or a $95 Spiderman sticker.
