The Maryland Medical Cannabis Commission will hire an independent firm to investigate concerns about a new application process for marijuana growers and processors that was meant to address a lack of gender and racial diversity in the industry.
That investigation is expected to take at least 45 days to complete, according to a letter Commission Chairman Brian Lopez sent the governor and legislative leaders last week.
The letter was made publicly available by the commission on Wednesday.
Concerns about the licensing process arose last month after members of the Legislative Black Caucus questioned whether efforts to diversify the industry had been successful, and after an applicant who had problems during a complicated application process received a temporary restraining order from a judge to halt new licenses.
The process to award four new growing and 10 new processor licenses has been ongoing for more than a year, after the General Assembly in 2018 passed House Bill 2, which added the 14 new licenses and sought to achieve racial, ethnic, gender and geographic diversity among licensees.
Lopez laid out the commission’s efforts to increase diversity in his letter. As required by the law, the commission held several trainings and business outreach events to encourage minority participation in the industry, including more than a dozen workshops co-hosted with the Legislative Black Caucus. Emergency regulations were passed to guide the new application process, allocating 15 percent of the application scoring system to diversity-related provisions.
Click here to read them rest of the article written by Danielle E. Gaines over at Maryland Matters