During the 2020 legislative session, I, together with my Senate Champion, Sen. Jill Carter, jointly introduced HB 1449\SB 1012 “Health – Medical Cannabis Reauthorization Act.” The intent of the Act was to correct several structural deficiencies in Maryland’s Medical Cannabis Program by promoting fairness and equity through our celebrated “Free Market System.”
After spending years discussing the lack of diversity in the Maryland program with applicants and constituents, coupled with the disasters from the application process in 2019, in which most of the applicants had significant minority-equity ownership, we decided enough was enough.
The Act would have given Stage 1 Pre-Approvals to all 2019 applicants that met a minimum score in their applications. It is important to note that in the original application process and the one for 2019, the scores among the applicants that eventually won and lost were within fractions of a point. All of those entities should have been given the same opportunity to be successful or fail in this soon to be multi-billion-dollar industry for the state.
When the General Assembly first passed legislation to create the program, there were many disagreements as to how many initial licenses, and which type, to authorize. Compromises were made to come up with 15 licenses for growers, an unlimited number of processors and a limit of two dispensaries per Senate district.
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