Pubdate: Fri, 07 Aug 2015
Source: Washington Post (DC)
Copyright: 2015 The Washington Post Company
Contact:  http://www.washingtonpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/491
Author: Michael Dresser, Baltimore Sun

MEDICAL MARIJUANA WINS SUPPORT

Possibility of Economic Boost From Production Facilities Is Enticing 
in Conservative Rural Areas of MD.

Washington County is a proudly conservative place. Voters here 
haven't backed a Democrat for president since 1964, and same-sex 
marriage lost by a landslide in a referendum three years ago.

But when Chicago-based Green Thumb Industries pitched a proposal to 
put a medical-marijuana production plant here, the county's five 
county commissioners - Republicans all - passed a resolution 
unanimously supporting the plan.

Residents of Hagerstown, the county seat, seem to be taking the news 
in stride. The consensus: yes to marijuana for relieving pain, no to 
recreational use.

"I think it's all right as long as it's only for medical. I don't 
want a lot of potheads," said Leo Myers, 61, a security worker at the 
Mack Truck plant.

It isn't just compassion for suffering patients that is driving the 
acceptance of medical marijuana in Washington County, although that 
is one factor. Here and in other rural counties from Western Maryland 
to the Eastern Shore, officials are looking at cannabis 
grower-processors as sources of jobs rather than purveyors of vice.

Unemployment in this county has eased since it soared into double 
digits during the recession. But at 6.1 percent, the rate remains 
higher than the statewide average of 5.6 percent. And many residents 
have to commute 90 minutes or more to jobs in or near the District. 
Decent-paying jobs closer to home are much in demand.

"Out in Western Maryland, we've been deprived and depressed a lot," 
said Commissioner John Barr. That history has helped shape reaction 
to the possibilities created by Maryland's legalization of marijuana 
for medical purposes.

"We view it as an economic-development opportunity," Barr said.

Green Thumb representatives who briefed the commissioners before last 
month's vote said the facility would employ 30 to 50 employees in its 
first year and predicted that it would expand to 200 workers in a new 
175,000square-foot plant in two to four years. They predicted the 
venture would give a $4 million-to$7 million boost to the local economy.

That is hardly an economic panacea, but it represents a significant 
lift for a county still reeling from 650 layoffs at a Citigroup 
mortgage-servicing center and the closing of Unilever's Good Humor 
ice cream plant, with its 450 jobs, in recent years.

The board's action illustrates how quickly attitudes are changing 
across Maryland about the medicinal use of cannabis - the industry's 
preferred term and one that was written into state law this year.

"There's a lot of interest all over the state," said Hannah Byron, 
executive director of Maryland's Medical Cannabis Commission.

The General Assembly voted to allow medical marijuana in 2013, but 
under terms so restrictive that no companies offered to supply the 
drug. Lawmakers overhauled the law in 2014 and again this year, 
setting up a regulatory system that has attracted the interest of investors.

The change came after lawmakers in Annapolis heard testimony from 
medical experts, cancer patients, parents of children with seizure 
disorders and others who believe cannabis products could relieve 
suffering for many patients.

The revised law establishes two tiers of tightly regulated businesses 
to provide cannabis to patients who have a recommendation from a 
physician. Up to 15 companies will be licensed to grow the plants and 
use them to make pharmaceutical products. The law also allows 94 
dispensaries - two for each state Senate district - for retail sales.

The commission that lawmakers set up to run the program has drafted 
regulations that are expected to become final next month. Soon after, 
the panel will begin taking applications for grower-processor 
licenses. The commission is expected to award those licenses in December.

Byron said that besides urban areas and Washington County, the 
commission has fielded inquiries from potential grower processors in 
Harford, Frederick, Allegany and Garrett counties and several 
locations on the Eastern Shore.

The interest in locating such facilities in rural areas has been seen 
in other states that have legalized medical cannabis with licensed 
producers, said Morgan Fox, a spokesman for the Marijuana Policy 
Project in Washington.

"From a business standpoint and a regulatory standpoint, it makes 
sense to go to places that have lower population densities and 
affordable property and fewer zoning restrictions," Fox said.

The vote in Washington County came after company officials outlined 
their business plan for commissioners and explained tight security 
measures they intend to put in place.

Green Thumb officials said the company won licenses for three 
cannabis facilities in Illinois but decided to open only two. The 
company hired Terry Gainer, a former sergeant at arms of the U.S. 
Senate and Illinois State Police director, as its security consultant.

Gainer told the commissioners the proposed facility outside 
Hagerstown would have around-the-clock guard service, electronic 
surveillance and extensive background checks of all employees. He 
said employees would be restricted to their own work areas and would 
not be permitted to move through the plant.

"The likelihood of diversion of product is slim or none," he said.

Commissioner LeRoy E. Myers Jr. praised Green Thumb's presentation, 
noting that the company did not have to seek the board's endorsement.

"They're here because they know it's a tender subject - at least for 
rural Maryland," Myers said.

Byron said the Washington County commissioners' support will carry 
some weight in the state licensing competition.

Sterling Crockett, a partner in Green Thumb's GTI Maryland 
subsidiary, said he did not think the process could have gone any better.

"We don't really see it as a liberal-conservative issue. We look at 
it as more of a health-related issue," he said.

That is how many in Hagerstown see it.

Nicole Draheim, 45, said she has a brother-in-law who has brain 
cancer. "If something were to help him, I don't think I could be 
against it," she said.

Draheim added that she wants to see medical use tightly regulated and 
opposes moves to permit recreational use.

"As the mother of a teenager, that scares me," she said.

Danielle Grove, 31, of Clear Spring has a friend whose child has a 
seizure disorder, a condition that proponents believe cannabis can help.

"Medically, I feel in controlled circumstances it's been fine," she said.

State Del. Neil C. Parrott, a Washington County Republican, is one of 
the few local elected officials who oppose the facility. He said that 
if he had been a commissioner, he would have voted no, despite the 
company's promises of jobs and tight security.

Parrott expressed concern that medical cannabis has not been approved 
by the Food and Drug Administration and remains illegal under federal 
law - although the Obama administration has taken a tolerant view of 
state efforts to allow it. Parrott also is skeptical of the claims 
made by proponents of the drug's benefits.

"It's not based on science - certainly not enough science that the 
FDA has approved any part of the marijuana plant," he said.

Commissioner Barr said he received some complaints about the county 
action, but not as many as he expected. He noted that the proposed 
facility would be in an industrial park off Interstate 81, with no 
homes or churches nearby.

"As long as it's not in their back yard, people don't care anymore," Barr said.

The Town Council in Easton, in Talbot County on the Eastern Shore, 
signed off in June on a plan by the Colorado-based CBD Wellness Group 
to put a cannabis growing and processing facility in a former Black & 
Decker plant there.

"It fills up a 240,000-squarefoot building that's been empty ever 
since Black & Decker left 24 years ago," Easton Mayor Bob Willey 
said. "It also provides about 80 jobs for the local economy."

Barr said he has a hard time believing how quickly attitudes toward 
medical marijuana have changed.

"If you'd have asked me five years ago about this, I would have said 
you're out of your mind," he said. "Probably three years ago."
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom