[Baltimore Sun] Commissioners president says Carroll leaders may try to outlaw recreational cannabis sales in county
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Following the Carroll County commissioners’ public hearing Thursday on proposed changes to county code that would regulate the sale of recreational cannabis, commissioners President Ken Kiler said leaders are likely to either require cannabis sellers to follow the most stringent version of Maryland’s rules, or to pass a measure that would ban cannabis sales in unincorporated areas of Carroll County.
“If three of the five commissioners want to outlaw it in Carroll County, we have that right to try,” Kiler said. “Maybe.”
Kiler said commissioners may wait until the conclusion of the Maryland General Assembly session before implementing new regulations on the sale of cannabis, to see if any new laws regarding how counties are able to regulate cannabis sales pass.
“We are either going to amend what the state did or didn’t do, or we’re going to prohibit it within our county ordinance,” Commissioner Michael Guerin said Thursday. “It’s still going to be available within the towns, the municipalities still have the ability to do what they like to do, but I think that’s really what it boils down to.”
As of July 1, 2023, individuals 21 and older in Maryland can legally use, possess and consume up to 1.5 ounces of cannabis flower, 12 grams of concentrated cannabis, or a total amount of cannabis products that does not exceed 750 mg of THC. This amount is known as the personal use amount.
According to the Maryland Cannabis Administration, there are two cannabis dispensaries in Carroll County, The Dispensary and Verilife Dispensary, both in Westminster. Both are under the city’s, not the county’s, jurisdiction.
Though Carroll commissioners have said they do not support recreational cannabis, current county codes do nothing to regulate where dispensaries can be placed.
The county zoning code contains regulations that govern the growing, processing or dispensing of medical marijuana. A medical marijuana shop must be located at least 400 feet from a residence. An ordinance proposed by the county Planning and Zoning Commission would expand countywide regulations for the distribution of medical marijuana to apply to recreational cannabis use.
“If we don’t have the zoning and planning properly in place, that does potentially leave the opening for them to be put wherever,” Commissioner Tom Gordon said Thursday.
Proposed code changes would require that a recreational shop be 500 feet from a residence, as well as schools, day care facilities, playgrounds, libraries and recreation centers. A cannabis shop could not be within 1,000 feet of another marijuana dispensary, grower and/or processor. Christmas tree stands and pumpkin patches could not also sell cannabis products.
Additionally, temporary zoning certificates would not permit cannabis sales, and on-site consumption of cannabis at a store would be prohibited, Carroll County comprehensive planner Hannah Weber told board members at the meeting.
During Thursday’s public hearing, five community members spoke against easier access to recreational cannabis, while two community members spoke in support of allowing adult recreational cannabis sales more freely.
Former commissioner and planning commission chair Robin Frazier, of Taneytown, said she would like Carroll to become a drug-free sanctuary county that defers to the federal law, under which cannabis remains illegal.
“Tell the state, ‘No, we’re not going to zone for something that’s illegal,’” Frazier said.
Hampstead resident Rick Glass said veterans benefit from cannabis use, and restricting cannabis would impact the veteran community.
“There is a lot of information out there that is very highly debatable when it comes to cannabis,” Glass said, “but the idea that cannabis is helping our veteran community is not debatable.”
Cannabis is not as harmful to society as alcohol is, Glass said, and although alcohol use results in more DUIs than cannabis use, Carroll County has more than 40 liquor stores. Glass added that recreational use of cannabis is associated with wellness benefits, as long as it is not abused.
Sykesville resident Annette Fleishell said cannabis is a gateway drug to more dangerous substances. She said she opposes cannabis legalization and that several hundred feet between shops is far from sufficient.
“That allows you to have a cannabis facility on every block,” Fleishell said, “in every strip mall.”
Katherine Adelaide, a member of the Carroll County Republican Central Committee and former Carroll County commissioner and Taneytown Council candidate, said she supports the Republican National Committee’s deferral to federal laws in regard to cannabis.
“I don’t want to see the feds come in here at any time and file a federal indictment against this board for violating federal law,” Adelaide said. “We don’t act because it’s not being enforced. You must act and do the right thing because it’s the legal thing.”
Finksburg resident David Wallace, a candidate for Congress in Maryland’s 2nd District, which includes most of Carroll and Baltimore counties, said he hopes that commissioners reject the premise that cannabis can be responsibly distributed to adults for recreational use.
The potency of cannabis has increased wildly since his youth, Wallace said, from a THC concentration of around 2%, to around 16% THC minimum today.
About 59% of U.S. adults support the legalization of recreational cannabis, and an additional 30% support the legalization of medical marijuana, according to the Pew Research Center; about 10% of Americans think all uses of the substance should be illegal.
At the conclusion of the public hearing, a motion to begin a 10-day comment period passed unanimously. Commissioners Vice President Joe Vigliotti, who made the motion, said several of those who spoke indicated that other community members would like an opportunity to provide perspectives on the issue.
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