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On July 1, Maryland will join D.C. and Virginia in legalizing recreational marijuana — but unlike those other jurisdictions, a regulated and functional retail market for marijuana will also open up.
“It’s going to be extremely busy,” said Brandon Barksdale, the co-CEO of Remedy, a marijuana dispensary with locations in Columbia, Maryland, and Baltimore City. “We’re bracing for a huge influx of traffic.”
D.C., Maryland and Virginia all have medical marijuana systems already up and running, and Virginia and D.C. have also already legalized small amounts of marijuana for personal use.
But have you tried to legally buy marijuana — or cannabis — without a medical marijuana card in those places?
In Virginia, you can’t. In D.C., it’s more murky, with the unlicensed “gifting” of cannabis products used to get around D.C.’s inability to have a licensed retail market.
Maryland’s move this weekend will make it the first jurisdiction in the region to introduce a legal retail market for adults 21 and over. WTOP breaks down what you can expect — and what the change means both for Maryland and the region.
How big will Maryland’s market be?
Maryland’s 160,000 medical marijuana patients generated sales in the range of $500 million last year, said Andrew Garrison, who is the chief of the office of policy and government affairs with the Maryland Cannabis Administration, the agency that oversees and regulates the sale and use of cannabis in the state.
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