La Plata, MD – Charles County is one step closer to approving the manufacture of medical cannabis as part of the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene’s effort to allow patients with severe medical conditions to acquire the drug.

At the Charles County Commissioners’ public hearing Tuesday, March 8, County Planner Aimee Dailey told county leaders that the Natalie M. LaPrade Medical Cannabis Commission was created within the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene in 2013 to implement recent medical cannabis legislation.

“The growing operations have been interpreted as agriculture leases,” Dailey said. “There is no amendment for growing. It’s a clarification on how the ordinance is written. The commercial greenhouses ordinance doesn’t allow for dispensing of the material. A commercial greenhouse is considered for agriculture. Adding the dispensing component needs to be addressed,” she pointed out.

Steven Mariast, the chief science officer for Maryland Earthworks, told the commissioners they have applied for three licenses for growing, processing and dispensing medical cannabis.

“We’re just waiting to hear on our application,” Mariast said.

“Our facility will be secure and safe for our staff, patients and community,” he added. “CDBs, one of the medical components to cannabis, can be a safe alternative for other medications.

“There will be no consumption of products on the premises,” he stressed.

Robert Sample, another representative of Earthworks, said that a lot of people compare cannabis to alcohol and tobacco.

“It disturbs me,” he said. “It’s a new medicine that is not available to the public.”

Sample touted Earthwork’s staff as being highly educated.

His wife, Sharon Sample, has spent 37 years with NASA. She will be president of the company, he said.

Their staff also includes the chief of staff from Calvert Memorial Hospital and Lee Broadhurst, a scientist for the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

“We have yet to touch on the scientific studies that need to be done to find out what it can really heal,” Sample added. “We have yet to truly find all the things it can be used for.”

Two representatives from Phytagenesis, a new company being planned for an old family farm in Charles County, said their product would be grown using hydroponics.

“This is an agricultural product and it should be treated as such,” the representative, who asked not to be identified, stated. “We’re already secure. The state of Maryland makes us have it very secure. This is not about smoking. It’s not about getting high. It’s about making medicine.”

DeForest Rathbone said he represented parents affected by addiction.

“We parents are the ones who are bearing the brunt of the marijuana problem in the country,” he said, adding he was expressing, “Anger at the government about not doing more about restricting the availability of marijuana to their children.”

He said the assertion that heroin addiction starts from a pill and moves to heroin was “a myth” and claimed that Colorado has experienced a rise in violent crime since marijuana’s legalization.

“Comparing what we’re doing Maryland with what is happening in Colorado is not fair,” said Charles County Commissioner Ken Robinson [D – District 1]. “Maryland did not legalize marijuana, just medical cannabis.”

The commissioners are expected to approve the measure March 15.

Contact Joseph Norris at joe.norris@thebaynet.com