Monday marks one year since Maryland legalized recreational marijuana, and the industry has been slowly growing.
There are now about 100 dispensaries spread throughout Maryland’s 23 counties and Baltimore City, with the state taking in more than $40 million in tax revenue over the past year.
Maryland taxes recreational marijuana sales at a rate of 9%.
Curio Wellness, which sells cannabis products to Maryland dispensaries, operates a massive cultivation facility in Timonium.
According to the company, demand for marijuana more than doubled after the state fully legalized recreational use for people at least 21 years old. Before that, it was only legal for medical patients.
“As the market grew, we started to understand what the consumer was looking for and what kind of potency,” said Wendy Bronfein, chief brand officer with Curio Wellness.
Bronfein took WTOP on a behind-the-scenes tour of the company’s facility, which comprises several warehouses stuffed full of rows and rows of marijuana plants.
The rooms are highly controlled with LED lighting and automatic watering systems.
“We have these white walls that are actually akin to what’s inside of a refrigerator,” Bronfein explained. “They provide a lot of insulation.”
It is a sophisticated and time-consuming process as each plant is guided through its entire life cycle, from a tiny baby plant to tall stalks that are covered with flower.
The facility generates 300 pounds of marijuana flower each week.
“Ultimately, when they’ve reached their full maturity, we harvest them,” said Bronfein. “That flower is then packaged and sold.”
With the plants taking months to reach their fully mature phase, customers sometimes have to wait for a while if they are looking for a particular type of marijuana.
They simply need time to grow.
“It’s several months from the time that you start until that product gets to the store,” Bronfein said. “If something hits that’s new, they’ll get it again in four to five months because it doesn’t happen quickly.”
Maryland is the only jurisdiction in the D.C. region that has fully legalized recreational marijuana.
While it is legal to possess it in both D.C. and Virginia, it is not legal to sell the drug for recreational purposes there.
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