The Capital

Lawmakers eye changes to pot laws

As industry grows, legislator­s debate local control over dispensary locations

- By Sam Janesch

One year after setting up an industry that sought to tackle an inequitabl­e, decades-long war on drugs, Maryland lawmakers are getting into the weeds on a handful of proposals some say will keep the state’s burgeoning recreation­al cannabis system on track.

“Y’all hippies voted for this. It is now legal,” Del. C.T. Wilson, one of the architects of the 2023 cannabis law, said at a recent hearing on bills aimed at protecting both cannabis users and businesses.

Wilson — who has said from the start he doesn’t particular­ly like cannabis, but wants to create a fair and robust industry to eliminate the illegal market — is focused on a bill to make sure counties opposed to dispensari­es can’t block them from opening. The legislatio­n is a response to Carroll, Prince George’s and several other counties that have tried to go beyond the restrictio­ns in last year’s law to limit where dispensari­es can open.

Despite pushback from Prince George’s lawmakers, it’s possibly the most likely piece of cannabis legislatio­n to pass before the annual General Assembly session ends April 8.

Wilson said he’s not sure whether another major bill aimed at protecting cannabis users from being discrimina­ted against at work will get over the finish line.

Others in considerat­ion, meanwhile, would reduce penalties for illegally distributi­ng cannabis, implement major revenue increases to fuel the cannabis reparation­s fund and make sure medical cannabis users can still get licenses to carry firearms.

The status of cannabis

Maryland has 96 licensed dispensari­es, 23 processors and 18 growers — all previously medical-only cannabis businesses that predated the legalizati­on of recreation­al cannabis in July, according to the Maryland Cannabis Administra­tion.

The first new licenses will be awarded soon.

The administra­tion said 1,708 “social equity applicants” made submission­s late last year during an initial round solely for prospectiv­e business owners who lived in or attended school in an area disproport­ionately impacted by the previous criminaliz­ation of cannabis.

Only 179 licenses will be awarded, including 75 standard dispensari­es and eight “micro” dispensari­es.

Up to 300 dispensari­es, 100 processors and 75 growers will operate in the state after the law is fully implemente­d. Another 10 dispensari­es, 100 processors and 100 growers are set to receive the smaller “micro” licenses, as well.

Sales have so far exceeded expectatio­ns. From July 1 through the end of December, the state saw $800 million in total cannabis sales, including medical-use marijuana, in 2023, according to the administra­tion.

Cannabis Administra­tion Director Will Tilburg told lawmakers he anticipate­s over $1 billion in total medical and recreation­al cannabis sales in the first full year of legalizati­on.

Avoiding a ‘vice village’

Under last year’s law, cannabis dispensari­es can’t be within 500 feet of primary or secondary schools, day care centers or family child care homes, playground­s, recreation centers, libraries or public parks. They also cannot be within 1,000 feet of another dispensary.

While lawmakers specified that local government­s could not pass further zoning requiremen­ts that “unduly burden” new licensees, the language was left open-ended in the law. That allowed counties to increase those buffers “within reason,” Kevin Kinnally, the legislativ­e director for the Maryland Associatio­n of Counties told lawmakers in a recent hearing.

In Carroll, for example, a dispensary could not be less than 500 feet from a residence under a proposed local ordinance. In Prince George’s County, council members proposed, but did not pass, legislatio­n to restrict new dispensari­es to industrial zones.

The legislatio­n from Wilson, a Charles County Democrat, and Sen. Brian Feldman, a Montgomery County Democrat who crafted the law last year, would prohibit those

kinds of moves by preventing local government­s from making zoning for dispensari­es more strict than for retail alcohol licenses.

“We’re not trying to get Marylander­s high,” Wilson said in an interview. “We’re trying to eradicate the illegal drug market. We can’t do that if we create vacuums.”

In a hearing on the bill, he told opponents he understand­s the “inherent distrust of government” determinin­g where businesses can sell drugs and alcohol, especially after state law never limited the number of liquor stores locally or statewide. That’s led to 6,500 alcohol retailers across the state and higher concentrat­ions of them in communitie­s with more minority population­s.

Wilson said his bill will be amended to increase the 1,000-foot buffer between dispensari­es to 1,500 feet (about a quarter-mile) and to give the public the chance to file protests regarding new locations. The bill would also require the state cannabis administra­tion to consider geographic distributi­on when awarding licenses, which are already set to have a limited amount per county. In Prince George’s, for instance, there will only be roughly 21 maximum licenses in a county with just under 1 million people.

But some lawmakers don’t think those measures would go far enough. Del. Andrea Fletcher Harrison, a Prince George’s County Democrat, said in the committee hearing that she also wants dispensari­es to be at least 1,500 feet from liquor stores, and wants another buffer zone between residentia­l zoning and dispensari­es.

Sen. Alonzo Washington, another Democrat from Prince George’s County, pushed back against Feldman in another hearing the following day. He said in an interview later that he’s open to amendments, but will not support the bill in its current form. Even amendments proposed by the Maryland Associatio­n of Counties to increase the distance restrictio­ns to 2,000 feet are probably not sufficient, he said.

“I cannot support a bill that usurps local zoning control,” Washington said. “It’s an overreach to me.”

Prince George’s County Councilmem­ber Wanika Fisher, a former Democratic delegate, said she’s been working with her former colleagues in Annapolis on a compromise. She shares the concerns about saturating communitie­s to create what she calls a “vice village” — dispensari­es, liquor stores and smoke shops in close proximity — but said it’s also important not to stop a new industry in its tracks, especially one aimed at lifting up communitie­s harmed by the war on drugs.

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