Maryland’s attempt to promote diverse ownership in its medical cannabisindustry has attracted more than 160 applications from firms seeking to score one of the state’s 14 new licenses.
More than a year after state lawmakers and Gov. Larry Hogan passed a law to boost participationby minority- and women-owned businesses, the Maryland Medical Cannabis Commission announced that competition will be fierce for four cannabis growing licenses and 10 for processing the plant into medical products.
Despite the healthy interest by companies, the new application process — like so many other milestones in Maryland’s medical marijuana market — has been marred by malfunction that regulators will work on fixing by Friday.
Many applicants faced technical problems with their submissions as the state’s online portal was inundated at last Friday’s 5 p.m. deadline, commission officials said. But they assured applicants that the technical issues should not prevent anyone from getting a fair shot at a stake in a fast-growing industry that generated $109 million in sales last year.
Click here to read the rest of the article written byDoug Donovan over at the Baltimore Sun