The ruling hands a temporary victory to hemp retailers who say they were forced to close under the terms of Maryland’s new cannabis law.
A budding marijuana plant grows at the Verano cultivation facility in Jessup, Md., on June 14. Hemp businesses say they were left behind as Maryland cleared the way for legal cannabis sales, which began July 1. Some shuttered businesses that sold hemp-derived products in Maryland until a new state law took effect will soon be able to reopen under a preliminary injunction issued by a circuit court judge.
The underlying lawsuit filed by the Maryland Hemp Coalition and other businesses in the hemp-supply chain remains unresolved. It alleges restrictions in the state’s new recreational cannabis market violate the Maryland Constitution’s equal protection and anti-monopoly clauses by effectively shutting down their businesses and excluding them from a tightly controlled market.
“The Administration was disappointed to learn of the preliminary decision in Washington County Circuit Court allowing for the continued sale of unregulated, untested, and intoxicating hemp-derived products,” William Tilburg, director of the Maryland Cannabis Administration, said in a statement on behalf of the newly-formed state agency.This summer, Maryland joined 22 other states that have legalized recreational cannabis use as public sentiment has shifted about the drug.
“I was inches away from bankruptcy,” he said Thursday evening before a coalition of plaintiffs gathered to discuss their next steps. “Hopefully, I can get up my business up and running and take care of my family.”He said his revenue dropped by 74 percent after the law took effect and he was barred from selling delta-8 and a host of other hemp-derived products that now require a type of retail license that by law were available only to existing medical marijuana companies.
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