The medical-marijuana regulator was worried. None of the 15 companies slated to be approved to grow cannabis were from key swaths of southern and southeastern Maryland even though state law calls for “geographic diversity” in authorizing growers.
Commissioner Buddy Robshaw, a longtime law enforcement official in Prince George’s County who currently heads the Cheverly police force, persuaded his colleagues on the Maryland Medical Cannabis Commission to reconsider.
After a long debate, four of the five members of the commission’s grower subcommittee agreed to reverse their unanimous decision on who would get the coveted licenses, Robshaw said a week later at an Aug. 5 commission meeting. They passed over two higher-scoring applicants in favor of teams from underrepresented areas, one of which was Prince George’s.
“We wanted everybody who would substantially look at this to come back and say, ‘You know what, the commission did create geographic diversity when we licensed marijuana,’?” Robshaw, who was appointed to the commission as a representative of the law enforcement community, told prospective marijuana entrepreneurs at the meeting.
A short time later, the full commission approved the shift.
