The transfer, which might make it more durable for native governments to set up zoning restrictions for cannabis dispensaries, comes one week after the state handed out the primary spherical of cannabis enterprise licenses.
A bill that will restrict county governments’ ability to restrict the situation of cannabis dispensaries has moved ahead within the Maryland General Assembly.
On Thursday, Maryland’s Senate handed House Bill 805, which might make it more durable for native governments to set up zoning restrictions for cannabis dispensaries. It comes one week after the state handed out the primary spherical of cannabis enterprise licenses.
Since authorized leisure marijuana gross sales went into impact in July 2023, native officers in some counties have tried to restrict the situation of dispensaries. But the bill’s sponsor Del. C.T. Wilson says he doesn’t need to see what’s occurred with liquor shops within the state occur to cannabis dispensaries.
“The purpose is just not to cluster them in a single space in order that they feed off one another. It makes zero sense to one way or the other crowd all of them into one space,” Wilson mentioned at a listening to on the bill final month.
The bill would forestall county governments from imposing stricter zoning restrictions on cannabis dispensaries than the restrictions on shops that promote alcohol.
The bill would ensure that native zoning laws “don’t unduly burden cannabis companies or impede their ability to function inside the parameters set by state regulation,” Wilson mentioned.
The present regulation in place already restricts dispensaries from being inside 1,000 toes of one another or inside 500 toes of faculties, day cares, playgrounds, libraries and public parks.
While the bill would restrict how far native governments can go in phrases of establishing geographical restrictions, it might improve some of these restrictions already in place.
The new bill would permit for native governments to improve the 1,000-foot buffer between dispensaries up to a half mile. It additionally requires the Maryland Cannabis Administration to think about geographic distribution when giving licenses and it might permit the general public to protest new dispensary locations.
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