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Maryland Hemp businesses ‘feel left out’ as cannabis legalization gets closer: ‘It’s heartbreaking’

The dreary day matched the uneasy mood inside Andrea Grant’s Bethesda Health and Wellness store as she opens for business one Wednesday morning, awaiting the customers of the day while also awaiting news on what could come next for her store.

While sharing her store, Gov. Wes Moore signed Maryland’s recreational cannabis plan into law. In the language is a small carveout for the hemp industry, allowing store owners to sell tinctures after the July 1 start date of the recreational industry.

That would basically mean we could sell only about 15% of our products, leaving the majority of people who use gummies or capsules without an option,” Grant said. “It would mean closure unless we pivot in some other direction to try and salvage it. For me, it would be catastrophic. Who can survive on 15%?”

Grant said she started her business with her late father in mind; he lost his battle with pancreatic cancer in 2017.

She said her father was “a health and wellness kind of person, and when she learned about hemp in 2019 – after the industry was legalized in the 2018 Farm Bill – she thought opening a store would be the perfect solution. Grant said she used her inheritance from her father to help open the doors to her Bethesda business. [Read More @ Fox News]

 

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