Maryland lawmakers finalizing guidelines for sale of recreational marijuana
BALTIMORE — Lawmakers are rushing through and passing as much legislation as they can. Monday marks Sine Die Day, the 90th and final day of the 2023 legislative session.
One of the year's big items: setting up the state's recreational cannabis industry. Both the House of Delegates and Senate have their own versions of a bill filed.
With the House of Delegates passing their version over the weekend, all eyes are on the Senate's vote.
Sen. Brian Feldman, D-Montgomery County, is one of the co-sponsors of the Senate version. He said since Marylanders voted for recreational cannabis in November, it's been one of the Maryland General Assembly's goal to get the industry going.
Feldman calls the bill a "balanced product."
"We wanted to get the apparatus in place, which it did that," he said "We also, at the same time had diversity and inclusion in mind. We learned from the medical cannabis program that we needed to deal with that."
The Senate version, which is identical to what the House of Delegates passed, aims to start recreational sales by July 1.
It also outlines how medical dispensaries can convert their licenses to sell both, as well as has multiple ways to ensure communities hit hard by the war on drugs get a slice of the pie.
One of those ways: having support for these business owners.
"Whether it's partnerships with some of the existing players, whether it's cannabis assistance funds, [we have to] let these applicants have the capital necessary to actually succeed," Feldman said.
One concern by Republicans has been where these businesses will be. Right now, dispensaries have to be at least 500 feet away from locations where children frequent, like schools and parks. They also have to be at least 1,000 feet away from another dispensary.
"We didn't want to see clustering of dispensaries, but also we wanted to make sure the local governments had some authority, through zoning, where these dispensaries could be located," said Senate Minority Leader Sen. Steve Hershey.
Democrats, including Feldman, have said this isn't perfect, adding they expect it to be tweaked in future sessions. But, Republicans say they needed to address more now before the industry opens its doors.
""I think the framework needs to be pretty tight, needs to leave out some of the ambiguity that's out there with respect to that," Hershey said. "Some of the questions will be answered next year, but we have to get as close to finalized as we can."
Hershey said there was also concern of selling recreational cannabis over the internet. He said they've been able to table that until at least 2025, wanting to see how things play out with other sales first.
The Senate is expected to vote on their version of the bill before midnight.
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Maryland lawmakers establish rules for the sale of recreational marijuana