Officials Swamped As Almost 900 License Applications Flood In

Maryland officials said Thursday that they expect to delay the state's medical marijuana program as they sort through a deluge of nearly 900 applications from businesses seeking licenses to grow, dispense or process the drug.

The crush of 882 applicants brought in more than $1 million in license fees and prompted officials to push back plans to grant preliminary approval to licensees by mid-January.

Extending the deadline to review, score and award the licenses into next year "in turn will extend the overall program rollout," said Hannah Byron, executive director of the Medical Cannabis Commission.

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Baltimore Moves to Eradicate Synthetic Drugs in the City As Emergency Room Visits Rise

When you think about drugs that ultimately lead people to the E.R., the first things that come to mind might be heroin, cocaine or prescription drugs. However, there is another dangerous set of substances that are sending thousands to hospitals across the country: synthetic drugs.

As an emergency physician, I have treated high school students who came in unresponsive and needed breathing tubes to stay alive. I have seen teens hallucinating and suffering seizures. I have attended to adults who sustained long-term brain, heart and kidney damage because of these harmful drugs.

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More Than 350 Apply for Licenses to Grow, Process or Dispense It

"We could be very successful here." Dr. Greg Daniel, who hopes to operate a "seed-to-sale" operation that grows marijuana, processes it and sells it at a dispensary

Maryland's nascent medical marijuana industry is already booming.

More than 350 applicants for licenses to grow, process or dispense medical marijuana were filed with the state's Medical Cannabis Commission by Friday evening's deadline as entrepreneurs try to get in at the ground floor of the newest pot market. The applications cover every county in the state.

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Who should be licensed to grow medical cannabis in Maryland? That question will soon be answered by the Natalie LaPrade Maryland Medical Cannabis Commission, which is authorized under state law to award licenses to 15 organizations to grow medical cannabis. The qualifications of these organizations are important, but so is where in Maryland they intend to locate. We want to shed light on why a qualified, licensed medical cannabis grower could be a tremendous asset for a community like ours.

We live and work in Cumberland, a small Western Maryland town blessed with stunning natural surroundings, tranquillity and friendly neighbors.

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Unexpected Players Getting in at the Ground Level

A 152,000-square-foot warehouse in Cumberland, Md., could soon be the home of some of Maryland's first legally produced medical marijuana. To address security concerns, Peak Harvest Health says it will install bulletproof glass and retinal scanners to identify those entering the building. Employees will wear color-coded uniforms confirming where they are allowed to be.

By late 2016, if approved by state regulators, the windowless building next door to a police station could be churning out up to 18 pounds of marijuana a day, enough to treat thousands of patients a month.

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Headlines like those in The New York Times ("U.S. to Release 6,000 Inmates From Prisons") and in this newspaper ("Hundreds of Marylanders will be among federal drug prisoners released early") are enough to add to the jitters of a city already grappling with an explosion of violence.

But hold your horses.

The U. S. Sentencing Commission is essentially admitting that tens of thousands of men and women should never have been punished so harshly. They were victims of the hysteria of a war on drugs that disproportionately targeted blacks and Latinos. Among the 13,000 federal inmates who are eligible for reduced sentences, including the 6,000 whose release will begin at the end of the month, 72 percent are black or Latino, and a majority have done time under draconian drug laws. They will be released in waves; some are already in transitional programs, like the 37 in a facility operated by Volunteers for America Chesapeake.

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Mass Incarceration and Long Prison Terms Don't Make Us Safer From Crime

The federal prison system holds thousands of inmates who probably don't need to be there, either because they received unduly long sentences for low-level, nonviolent drug offenses committed decades ago, or because they're now simply too old to represent much of a threat (crime being overwhelmingly a young man's game). The U.S. locks up more of its citizens per capita than any other country, despite the facts that it hasn't made us any safer, and the costs, both economic and social, have been enormous.

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Statute Gives Physicians Permission to Issue Blanket Prescriptions for Naloxone

Thousands of people have been trained to use a drug that prevents heroin overdoses, but many have faced a hurdle to obtaining naloxone - - a doctor's prescription.

Under a Maryland law that takes effect today, doctors at local health departments can write a blanket prescription that covers anyone who is trained on how to administer the drug, also known as Narcan. They simply need to present a card at the pharmacy showing they had been taught by a state-certified trainer.

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I am in full support of County Executive Steve Schuh's restrictions on the growing and distribution of medical marijuana in Anne Arundel County. The medical marijuana law is a work in progress, as evidenced by its much-delayed execution, twice passed by the General Assembly but postponed many times because of its difficult implementation.

So it is entirely reasonable for our county executive to want to limit medical marijuana's growth and distribution in Anne Arundel County until the law is thoroughly vetted. If the goal is the well-being of patients, what possible difference does it make where the drug is manufactured?

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A word of caution for readers of Dan Rodricks' column ("'Normalization' of marijuana doesn't necessarily mean wider use," Sept. 17). Continued vigilance in communicating and educating young people about the health effects of heavy marijuana use is critical. This is especially important since fewer adolescents now perceive marijuana as harmful. The University of Michigan's Monitoring the Future Study 2014 reports that just about one-third of high school seniors believe marijuana can be harmful to health, down from 52.4 percent.

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Schuh's Attempt to Ban Medical Marijuana Facilities in Anne Arundel County Is Alarmist and Probably Illegal

Anne Arundel County Executive Steve Schuh's effort to effectively ban medical marijuana facilities in his county through the zoning code is not only alarmist and prejudicial, it is also probably illegal.

That's the clear conclusion to draw from a letter of advice provided to members of the General Assembly from an assistant attorney general. State law explicitly says that medical marijuana growing, processing and distribution facilities must comply with local zoning. But "it does not permit the county to effectively bar these facilities, unless a particular county has special characteristics which make a particular type of facility inappropriate." We rather doubt that Mr. Schuh's desire to ensure that Anne Arundel isn't a "guinea pig" when it comes to medical marijuana would qualify as such a special characteristic. Rather, we are quite certain that in as large and diverse a county as Anne Arundel, there are plenty of locations that would be more than suitable for all types of medical marijuana facilities.

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The Maryland attorney general's office says counties cannot summarily ban medical marijuana operations that are allowed by state law - an opinion conflicting with a proposal by Anne Arundel County Executive Steve Schuh to prohibit medical marijuana facilities in that county.

Last week, Schuh proposed a county bill to prevent individuals from growing, processing or dispensing medical marijuana in all Arundel zoning classifications. People with a valid prescription would be allowed to possess and use medical marijuana, but would have to get it outside the county.

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Nearly 2 1/2 years after legalizing the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes, Maryland is preparing to issue business licenses to dispensaries and cultivation centers-prompting a range of reactions from local elected officials.

At one extreme, Anne Arundel County Executive Steve Schuh (R) is proposing a ban on cannabis production and shops in the county, which a skeptical state lawmaker likened to a county specific OxyContin prohibition. Elsewhere, Republicans hungry for jobs in their rural communities are embracing potential marijuana businesses.

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The Anne Arundel Collation for Compassionate Care believes that County Executive Steve Schuh's anti-compassionate care legislation discriminates against county residents who suffer from the devastating effects of debilitating health conditions ("Medical marijuana ban runs into doubts," Sept. 15).

Patients suffering from cancer, HIV/AIDS, seizures, autoimmune diseases, post-traumatic stress disorder, traumatic brain injuries and other debilitating health conditions should not have to suffer in the darkness. They should not have to travel long distances to procure a medicine that their doctor and health professionals from around the world have deemed effective and beneficial.

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Anne Arundel County Executive Steve Schuh's position on medical cannabis is both disappointing and baffling.

And it cannot be permitted to stand.

Under Mr. Schuh's proposal, medical cannabis facilities, essentially the pharmacies to distribute medication to suffering patients, and all matters of manufacturing and distribution of this medication, would be made illegal in Anne Arundel County. As a member of the House of Delegates, Mr. Schuh voted against medical marijuana and to continue making possession of small amounts of marijuana an offense punishable by months in jail. In combination with his current stance, if Mr. Schuh has his way, citizens of Anne Arundel County, and across our state with debilitating diseases such as cancer, AIDS and glaucoma would continue to be forced to choose between obtaining helpful medication and being a criminal.

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Rod Rosenstein's op-ed piece, "A proven plan to prevent city murders" (Sept. 13), starts with the notion that it is the Police Department's job to prevent crime. To the contrary, I believe it is the Police Department's job to promptly respond to crime, investigate crime and deliver the guilty person to justice. The primary job of a prosecutor is to be a minister of justice - this is a widely accepted but often-ignored requirement, and it is ignored in Mr. Rosenstein's essay.

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It's a shame that Anne Arundel County Executive Steve Schuh is moving backward, not forward, on medical marijuana ("Proposal to ban medical marijuana raises doubts," Sept. 15). In 23 states and Washington, D.C., sick patients depend on legal medical marijuana to help alleviate symptoms of chemotherapy, prevent seizures and more. Medical marijuana in Maryland, as it stands, will be regulated tightly by an appointed commission to ensure that it only benefits approved patients. Forcing patients to travel benefits nobody and creates yet another burden on the sick or dying. I hope that Mr. Schuh stops substituting his own judgment for that of the commission and stops playing politics with people's lives.

Brandon Levey, Pikesville

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The Baltimore County Council has set the zoning rules that will govern where medical marijuana businesses can open in the county.

The unanimous passage of Councilwoman Vicki Almond's bill makes Baltimore County the first jurisdiction to tackle zoning issues surrounding medical marijuana, in advance of the state's issuing licenses to growers, processors and dispensaries. Medical marijuana growing and processing facilities will be allowed in industrial districts, although in the Chesapeake Enterprise Zone - a commercial and industrial district in the eastern part of the county - a grower must obtain approval of a special exception, which can be granted by an administrative judge after a public hearing.

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Instead of arresting street level dealers, Maryland should focus on treating heroin addiction Recently The Capital reported on the arrest of 25 people in Annapolis for selling heroin. Our political leaders celebrated this as a significant victory in the drug war.

Yet we have seen countless headlines about drug busts in the 40-plus years since Richard Nixon declared the war on drugs, and the drug trade continues unabated. Does anyone believe the recent arrests will accomplish anything, beyond saddling the arrestees with convictions that will haunt them the rest of their lives? As long as there is a demand for the drugs, the trade will continue.

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Aspiring Growers Ask Balto. CO. Council to Change Law

Entrepreneurs eager to get a foothold in the nascent medical marijuana business in Maryland asked Baltimore County Council members Tuesday to pass zoning laws that would allow them to operate.

Travis Radebaugh, a member of the family that operates Towson-based Radebaugh Florist & Greenhouses, told council members his company is ready to start growing marijuana - if the council allows farming operations in rural zones.

Council members are wrestling with details of where they should allow medical marijuana growing operations, processing facilities and dispensaries once the state approves licenses for the businesses.

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