Smoke-free cannabis consumption lounges, and events where cannabis vendors could offer single-serving products direct to consumers, are both being considered under legislation now pending with Maryland lawmakers.
Maryland’s nascent cannabis marketplace, already a billion-dollar industry, moves mostly combustible products that are consumed by smoking. Now, the state’s cannabis oversight agency is looking to cannabis-infused beverages and edibles as “a way that the industry can grow in a different direction,” according to Andrew Garrison, head of the Office of Policy and Government Affairs in the Maryland Cannabis Administration (MCA).
Garrison spoke Jan. 30 in Annapolis at a hearing for Senate Bill 215. He told lawmakers how, because the MCA is about to authorize its second round of cannabis dispensary licenses, cannabis events and consumption lounges will be part of the state’s business model moving forward.
However, governments would have to agree to permit on-site lounges and cannabis events before they could go forward. Cannabis lounges can’t operate unless a “political subdivision,” as the bill puts it, authorizes its operation by issuing a permit or license.
“Not everyone is on board with an on-site consumption license,” Garrison told the committee. “There might be only a few jurisdictions open to moving this forward. If there’s only a few, then that’s something I think we’d be comfortable with. We don’t want to necessarily force what is a relatively new model onto local jurisdictions.”
According to the bill, MCA would issue 50 on-site consumption licenses with an application fee of $5,000. No smoking or vaping would be allowed under this bill, just edible or liquid products.
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