Maryland weed dispensaries to prioritize patients as state prepares for legalization
BALTIMORE - Dispensaries all over Maryland are bracing for July 1 when the use and sales of recreational weed become legal.
But for those who have been using medicinal marijuana, there will be some accommodations to ensure they still get what they need.
Medical marijuana patients are being prioritized.
RELATED: Weed legalization in Maryland: How we got here
When WJZ visited Nature's Care Wellness in Perryville, outside, it looked like how it's been since getting their license in 2017.
"This is the new space, it's a little dark right now," said Robert Windsor, owner of Nature's Care Wellness.
But inside, their expansion was getting the final touches, more than doubling their space to accommodate the influx of new customers when recreational, or adult use, marijuana is legal.
It's not just the bigger crowds getting accommodated.
Medicinal marijuana users will be getting two of the 12 registers just for them.
They will also get their own check-in line.
For owner Robert Windsor, it's about taking care of his neighbors.
"I live in their community, I'm part of their community, and I'm not going to let them be stuck behind and not being treated like they were before adult use hits," Windsor said. "So that is a big focus of mine to make sure that doesn't stop."
Connor Sheffield, who has a number of conditions, including the chronic illness, gastrointestinal dysmotility, has been using medical marijuana since 2018.
"Within 30 minutes of my first trying of it, I was starving," Sheffield said. "I was feeling hunger for the first time in my entire life."
Sheffield said medical marijuana use has been a huge difference.
"I haven't been hospitalized since I started using this, which is crazy, crazy strides," Sheffield said. "Just a place I never thought I'd be. I have a quality of life I never thought I'd have."
Nature's Care and Wellness won't be the only dispensary making these kinds of accommodations.
The Maryland Cannabis Administration tells WJZ that all dispensaries throughout the state have to make these accommodations to ensure patients get their medicine.
"If a medical card holder does go into a dispensary, they should either have a line that is going to be separate from adult use, and presumably shorter, or dispensaries will have maybe an hour before or an hour after close just for patient hour," said Dawn Berkowitz, Deputy Director of the Maryland Cannabis Administration.
To see statewide guidance put in for medicinal users is a welcome concept for patients like Sheffield.
"They're looking out for us, they recognize this is medicine," Sheffield said.