Maryland’s black state lawmakers are weighing options to ensure that the state’s nascent medical marijuana industry includes its fair share of minority-owned businesses.
The Legislative Black Caucus, which comprises 45 of the General Assembly’s 188 members, has criticized the lack of racial diversity in an independent commission’s licensing of 15 companies to grow and 15 businesses to process the drug. Only one grower license and one processor license were awarded last month to businesses with some sort of minority leadership.
Complaints about diversity add to a host of complications Maryland has faced since it first attempted to set up a medical marijuana program in 2013. With millions of dollars in anticipated revenue at stake, Maryland has been slow to implement a regulatory regime for the growing, processing and dispensing of marijuana, which is still a federally banned drug.
“With the last breath in my body, I am going to see minority participation at the level it should be in Maryland with medical marijuana,” Delegate Cheryl Glenn said in an interview. “This is a billion-dollar industry.”
Ms. Glenn, Baltimore Democrat, said the black caucus could file an injunction against the Maryland Medical Cannabis Commission to increase the number of licenses for growers, or it could introduce emergency legislation to deauthorize the commission, which would restart the selection process from scratch.
“There’s strong support for both scenarios,” she said. “I’m not prepared to say one way or the other yet.”
At an emergency meeting Friday of the Legislative Black Caucus, nearly 150 residents voiced concerns about the application process for preliminary licenses to grow and process marijuana.
“I didn’t know what to expect, but we had standing room only,” said Ms. Glenn, a leading advocate for medical marijuana. “This is one of those fights that you’re in it until the end.”
Ms. Glenn said Gov. Larry Hogan, a Republican, and state Attorney General Brian E. Frosh, a Democrat, have signaled support for better minority representation.
But there may be little that legislative or executive officials can do because the commission is an independent agency.
In an open letter on the home page of the commission’s website, the chairman defends the selection process by saying commissioners “took every step possible to include racial diversity as a weighted component of the regulations.”
“I, as the Chairman, along with all of the other Commissioners, followed strict regulations and guidelines defined at the beginning of the application process as required by law, to ensure a fair and objective selection process,” Dr. Paul Davies says in the letter.
Dr. Davies, a pain management specialist, notes that the law authorizing the commission to award licenses requires it to seek “racial, ethnic and geographical diversity,” but that the applications would have no requirements for disclosure of race. The commission received 145 applications for licenses to grow and 124 applications for licenses to process pot.
The commission chairman also describes a “double-blinded” process in which the Regional Economic Studies Institute at Towson University reviewed and ranked applications from which all identifying information had been redacted. He said the commission voted on only the redacted applications.
“I would like to reiterate that the Commission is committed to seeking and promoting racial diversity and minority inclusion. We believe that diversity is in the best interest of the industry and an important responsibility. The Commission will continue to work with the legislature to help solve these complex problems,” Dr. Davies’ letter states.
Ms. Glenn noted suggestions that minority applicants might have more leverage in the dispensary licensing process but said that doesn’t help those who want to be part of the more lucrative growing and processing industry.
“It’s like throwing crumbs at minorities,” the black caucus member said.
The implementation of a medical marijuana program in Maryland has been plagued by delays, and the Marijuana Policy Project acknowledges it has had “one of the slowest rollouts of comparable states.”
State officials first attempted to start a program in 2013. Lawmakers approved a program that tasked teaching hospitals with researching the drug for medicinal use. That attempt failed, though, because the hospitals were unwilling to risk losing federal funding by participating in the marijuana research.
In 2014, legislators passed a more easily implemented law that allows patients to possess up to a 30-day supply of medical marijuana and allows dispensaries to dole out the drug provided by 15 licensed cultivators. Patients are not permitted to grow their own pot.
That law, which is set to go into effect next summer, is the platform for the current program.
The program has been slow to get off the ground. Lawmakers approved a bill this year to expand the list of providers who can recommend marijuana as treatment to include dentists and nurse practitioners. That law will take effect June 1.
Around the time Maryland was setting up its medical marijuana infrastructure, the state also decriminalized the drug. In 2014, Gov. Martin O’Malley approved legislation that made possession of small amounts of marijuana a civil fine rather than a criminal penalty.
Last year, legislators passed a bill to decriminalize marijuana paraphernalia. Mr. Hogan vetoed the bill, but the General Assembly had enough votes to override the veto.
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