RX POT DEAL IMPERILED: Advocates who want to diversify and expand Maryland’s medical marijuana industry are calling on the General Assembly to hold a one-day special session to get the job done. But the top politicians in Annapolis are again at odds on the issue, imperiling the chances for a deal, reports Fenit Nirappil for the Post. Democratic lawmakers agree that the state should approve five new minority growers to join the 15 mostly white-owned companies already pre-approved to open cultivation sites.
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The Legislative Black Caucus stepped up its demand Wednesday for a special General Assembly session to address a lack of diversity in the medical marijuana industry, saying that failure to do so would effectively shut out African-Americans from a lucrative business, Erin Cox of the Sun is reporting.
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Del. Cheryl Glenn, chair of the Legislative Black Caucus, and Sen. Joan Carter Conway called the death of the bill to expand licensure a deliberate act. They want a single-issue session to pass the bill. “I have never been so angry or disappointed in the legislature in my three terms of service,” Glenn said.
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The editorial board for the Sun opines that it would be futile to hold a special session on the issue right now, writing that “the issue was a provision altogether unrelated to increasing the racial and ethnic diversity of the licensees that Mr. Miller insisted on and Mr. Busch wouldn’t agree to. … there is no question that Mr. Miller is the one who should back down.”