Maryland will begin recreational weed sales over the holiday weekend
ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) — Maryland is becoming the latest state to legally sell recreational marijuana, as businesses aim to tap into July Fourth festivities to kick off sales.
About 100 stores that already have been licensed to sell cannabis for medicinal purposes will be able to begin selling it recreationally Saturday, more than five years after the state started selling medical marijuana.
"This is cannabis' kind of Independence Day — over Independence Day weekend — and so it's nice to be able to pull something together that makes it more of a celebratory occasion," said Brandon Barksdale, co-CEO of Remedy Maryland, which has a superstore in Columbia.
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The Maryland law creates a "personal use amount" for people 21 and older to possess up to 1.5 ounces of cannabis flower, 12 grams of concentrated cannabis or a total amount of cannabis products that does not exceed 750 mg THC.
People also can grow marijuana at home, including up to two plants out of public view. Medical patients will be able to cultivate up to four plants at home.
Under the state's medical cannabis program, nearly 163,000 people were able to buy marijuana. For 21 and older, that market opens up to roughly 4 million residents.
State lawmakers created the regulatory framework in this year's legislative session, after voters approved a constitutional amendment with 67% of the vote to allow recreational cannabis.
Nearly half of the states have approved selling marijuana recreationally, though some have yet to establish a marketplace for sales, including neighboring Virginia and Delaware, as well as Minnesota.
"I think once you get to the point that we're at right now — about the halfway mark — you start to feel a lot of momentum, a lot more trust from consumers, a lot more trust from patients, a lot more trust from investors that have to help fund all of these operations," said Chantelle Elsner, senior vice president of commercial operations for TerrAscend, which has a cannabis location in Cumberland, with stores expected to open soon in Salisbury and Parkville.
Voters in the District of Columbia have approved recreational cannabis, but Congress has blocked the city from creating a legalized market.
Recreational cannabis also isn't legally sold in any of Maryland's neighboring states, boosting business owners' hopes that Maryland's market will be lucrative.
"I definitely do think with the states around us not being recreational yet that that's absolutely going to drive all of the traffic to Maryland," said Brianna Anderson, marketing manager for Gold Leaf, which has a store in Annapolis.
Business owners also hope having legal sales in a state next to the nation's capital will help encourage a change in federal policy, which still considers marijuana to be illegal.
"There's so much irony and conundrums and hypocrisy in cannabis policy in the U.S. that the closer to home it gets to the decision makers ... the more chance there is for change," said Ben Kovler, CEO and co-founder of Green Thumb Industries, whose Maryland RISE stores are located in Hagerstown, Joppa, Bethesda and Silver Spring.
More licenses will be distributed early next year, with an emphasis on addressing equity concerns for minority- and women-owned businesses. The law allows the Maryland Cannabis Administration to issue additional grower, processor, and dispensary licenses, and new incubator licenses over two licensing rounds.
Cannabis products will be subject to a 9% sales tax, which is the same as the state's tax on alcohol. State regulators have estimated recreational marijuana could generate as much as $600 million in sales for the first year.
Maryland lawmakers also approved legislation this year providing that the odor of cannabis alone is not grounds for a police search and reduces the penalty for public smoking from a $250 fine to a $50 fine for a first offense.
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