St. Mary's County Times December 06, 2018 | Page 4
4
Local News
The County Times
Men’s
Night
25 th
Thursday, December 6, 2018
Commissioners Hold Off
Support For Cannabis Bill
Annual
Friday
Dec. 7, 2018
4 - 8 p.m.
By Guy Leonard
Staff Writer
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Some of the Commissioners of St.
Mary’s County supported a statewide
bill that would lower the required age to
work on a medical marijuana growing
facility from 21 to 18, but not enough to
send a letter to support its passage in the
Maryland General Assembly.
Three commissioners including Eric
Colvin, Todd Morgan and Mike Hewitt
decided not to support the measure
when it came up for discussion Tuesday
with other legislative proposals headed
to Annapolis.
Morgan wanted more time to get
more information on medical marijuana
growing while Hewitt flatly declined
support.
“I’m a ‘no’,” Hewitt said.
Commissioner John O’Connor, who
has in the past voiced opposition to lo-
cally growing medical marijuana, said
he supported the measure because of the
economic development opportunities it
could afford the county.
“In Maryland it’s a $100 million in-
dustry already,” O’Connor said. “I don’t
think we should miss the boat.”
O’Connor was the one to introduce
it to the commissioners for a vote this
week.
Commissioner President James “Ran-
dy” Guy also voiced his support.
“I have no problem with this,” Guy
said. “This is going to happen at the
state level.”
The impetus behind the drive for lo-
cal support came from a local medical
marijuana dispensary owned by Charles
Mattingly, Southern Maryland Relief.
Mattingly said in an interview with
The County Times that while they only
now have the license to dispense medi-
cal marijuana, he was confident the state
would soon allow him to operate a se-
cure growing facility.
He said a growing facility here, which
would not be outdoors but in a secured
in-door facility, could employ as many
as 100 workers.
“This industry is growing each day,”
Mattingly said. “This isn’t about canna-
bis, this is about horticulture in general.”
Mattingly argued that fewer and fewer
young people getting out of college were
pursuing agricultural or manufacturing
jobs.
By giving them lucrative agricultural
jobs earlier, it might spur them to con-
sider jobs that dealt more with agricul-
ture, said Mattingly.
“We can get farming up and about
again,” Mattingly said, adding that
younger workers could be employed in
the planting process, such as preparing
soil, without coming into contact with
cannabis plants.
Mattingly said the medical canna-
bis his dispensary dealt with was high
in CBD or cannabidiol which had wide
ranging medicinal purposes from reduc-
ing the affects of dementia to relieving
seizures.
Cannabidiol differed from THC, or
tetrahydrocannabinol, which was the
active ingredient in marijuana that in-
duced a narcotic high.
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