About Medical Cannabis in Maryland
As of July 1, 2023, recreational cannabis is now available to purchase in Maryland. Within six months of recreational legalization in Maryland, cannabis sales reached nearly $700 million, with medical sales increasing by over $200 million in five months.
Since the Natalie M. LaPrade Maryland Medical Cannabis Commission (MMCC) was initiated in 2015, state university graduates in Maryland created apps that track cannabis strain effects to report to other users. Otha Smith III and a team of techies used personal experience to create the app.
“Smith said he was overwhelmed by a variety of cannabis products when he first became a patient registered with the Maryland Medical Cannabis Commission as an alternative to using opioids to manage pain that stems from a car crash in 2003 in which he was ejected from the vehicle,” reports The Gazette.
While residents are making progressive cannabis apps, the state is changing arrest protocol when it comes to cannabis. In July 2020, a state judge ruled that the Baltimore Police Department can no longer arrest any resident on the basis of the smell of cannabis as probable cause.
The ruling, “builds on a ruling last summer by the same court that an officer could not arrest and search someone based on an observation of an amount of marijuana that is fewer than 10 grams, which is within the range that was decriminalized in 2014,” reports the Baltimore Sun.
As Maryland moves forward with medical cannabis apps and decriminalization efforts, residents of the Free State continue to openly benefit from the plant’s many healing properties.
Qualifying Conditions
Maryland has a handful of qualifying conditions that make patients eligible for a medical cannabis card, including:
Additionally, the state allows any other “chronic medical condition which is severe and for which other treatments have been ineffective,” as acceptable eligibility for card approval.
Along with a qualifying condition(s), patients must prove their Maryland residency with a valid driver’s license or state identification card. The registration fee is $25.
While Maryland only registers residents into the statewide program, “a person from out-of-state who is in the state for the purpose of receiving medical care can be issued a written certification and obtain medical cannabis, but the state does not accept ID cards from other states,” according to the MMCC’s website.
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