Maryland Lawmakers Sorting Out Details As July Legal Cannabis Sales Approach

Members of the Maryland Senate passed a bill to legalize sales of recreational cannabis in Maryland on Thursday, reported Marijuana Moment. The move comes months after Marylanders overwhelmingly approved marijuana legalization in the November midterms.

The state Senate Finance Committee advanced a substantially amended measure on Monday.

“We want to get this moving. There’s a lot of pieces to this,” state senate president Bill Ferguson (D) said earlier. “And I think, you know, there’s no such thing as perfect in legislation. It’s doing the best you can to mitigate any of the potential unintended consequences that we can imagine today.”

Some of the changes to Senate Bill 516 from Sens. Brian Feldman (D) and Antonio Hayes (D) included:

• The tax rate on cannabis products of 9% starting July 1.
• Setting up an independent Maryland Cannabis Administration separate from the Alcohol and Tobacco Commission. (Both the original legislation and the House Bill proposed it becoming a division within a new Alcohol, Tobacco and Cannabis Administration.)
• Defines THC to include Delta-8, Delta-9 and other delta compounds.
• Removes saving and loans, keeping banks as the only financial institutions allowed to provide services to licensed cannabis businesses.
• Allows standard licenses for up to 300 dispensaries, 100 processors and 75 cultivators. “Micro” operations would be given additional licenses for 200 dispensaries, 100 processors, and 100 cultivators.
• Medical marijuana patients can cultivate up to four plants for personal use; under the current law, they are allowed only two.

In the meantime, the state House of Delegates passed another cannabis-related bill, House Bill 556, earlier this month.

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