“The growing cannabis industry holds immense potential for economic growth for Maryland.”

By Bryan P. Sears, Maryland Matters

Cannabis taxes paid to the state of Maryland for the first three months of 2024 grew by less than 1 percent even as collections fluctuated sharply on a regional basis.

Maryland collected nearly $14.7 million in taxes on sales of recreational cannabis in the first quarter of this year, an increase of less than 0.7 percent compared to the fourth quarter of 2023, according to the Office of the Comptroller. The data released Wednesday is just the third quarterly report since July 1, 2023, when Maryland residents 21 and older could legally purchase cannabis for recreational use.

“The growing cannabis industry holds immense potential for economic growth for Maryland.” Comptroller Brooke Lierman said in a statement. “Reinvesting the revenue from adult-use cannabis sales into communities that were damaged by misguided policies allows us to further create a more equitable, resilient, and prosperous future for all Marylanders.”

Maryland imposes a 9 percent sales tax on recreational cannabis products. There is no sales tax on medical purchases.

The Maryland Cannabis Administration divides the state into five regions—Capital, Central, Eastern, Southern and Western.

Currently, there are 96 dispensaries spread across the state’s 23 counties and Baltimore City. A comptroller’s spokesperson declined to release county-by-county tax collection data Thursday, saying that doing so could potentially lead to the identification of individual businesses and violate tax privacy laws.

Tax collections in some regions have fluctuated over the first nine months of recreational sales. Officials in the comptroller’s office and the cannabis administration could not immediately account for the variances.

The Capital Region, comprising the two most populous counties in Maryland—Montgomery and Prince George’s—accounted for more than $6.7 million in taxes, a 76 percent increase over the previous quarter. The amount represented 46 percent of all cannabis taxes collected in the first three months of the year, the first time the region has led the state in cannabis taxes remitted.

The $3.7 million remitted by shops in the Central Region, meanwhile, was a drop of nearly 44 percent from the previous quarter. The region comprises Baltimore City and Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Carroll, Harford and Howard counties.

In the Eastern Region, which includes nine Eastern Shore counties stretching from Cecil to Worcester, sales tax collection grew to nearly $1.6 million. That is 15 percent more than in the previous three months, and it marks the second consecutive quarter of increased collections for the region.

Sales tax collections in the Western Region grew by more than 29 percent quarter over quarter. It was also the second consecutive quarter of growth for that region, which includes Allegany, Garrett, Frederick and Washington counties.

The Southern Region remitted $618,218, a decrease of more than 40 percent over the last three months of 2023. The amount is also lower than the more than $760,000 collected in the first three months of legal recreational sales. The region includes Calvert, Charles and St. Mary’s counties.

Taxes from the sales of recreational cannabis are divided among the counties, the state and the Maryland Cannabis Administration, which got nearly $2.8 million in this quarter. The rest of the money is divided between jurisdictions.

Areas disproportionately impacted by the enforcement of cannabis prohibition laws prior to last July receive 35 percent of the taxes collected each quarter, after the administration takes its cut. That fund will receive nearly $4.2 million from collections in the first quarter.

Five percent of the total tax collected in a quarter is earmarked for the state’s 24 major political subdivisions. This quarter the counties and Baltimore City will split more than $593,000. The split is based on the percentage of taxes collected by each jurisdiction. Those jurisdictions then share 50% of their respective cut with municipalities that have cannabis dispensaries that contributed to the sales and use tax collection.

Another 5 percent goes to a fund to help address health effects of recreational cannabis use.

A fund established to help small, minority-owned, and women-owned businesses enter the adult-use cannabis industry also receives 5 percent. That earmark continues through fiscal 2028.

The state receives the balance. More than $5.9 million in taxes collected in the first three months of the year will go directly to the general fund, according to the comptroller’s office.

This story was first published by Maryland Matters.

Maryland Governor Launches Marijuana Workforce Development Program Focused On People Criminalized Over Cannabis

BALTIMORE – The beginning of July will make way for hundreds of new Maryland laws to take effect.

Here’s a glance at what’s to come July 1.

ALCOHOL DELIVERY

Alcohol delivery will expand in the state. Delivery drivers will be able to apply for a service permit, which will allow for the delivery of alcoholic beverages from an authorized business. There will be an annual $1,000 fee for the permit.

Chuma Chiza, a liquor store owner in Baltimore City, said this legislation will help expand opportunities for small businesses.

“That’s an extra income,” Chuma Chiza. “It helps us reach farther than our own community.”

TICKET SALES AND RE-SALES

The law puts umbrella protections in place for consumers who are in the market to purchase tickets. The legislation bans speculative tickets. The seller must disclose information about the ticket. This includes the total price with fees and taxes.

“What we want to do by this is taking out the deception, taking out this huge profit, taking out this manipulated market and create this fair environment for purchasing tickets,” Maryland State Senator Dawn Gile said earlier this year.

CLEAN INDOOR AIR ACT 

The Maryland Clean Indoor Air Act was amended in 2024 that prohibits vaping in virtually all indoor public spaces and workplaces. The Act, first signed into law in 2007, was updated to “persevere and improve the health, comfort, and environment of the people of Maryland by limiting the exposure to environmental smoke,” according to the Maryland Department of Health. 

“You aren’t allowed to smoke cigarettes in most places,” Baltimore resident Joshua Smith said. “Why would vaping be any different?”

The Act prohibits people from smoking and vaping in public meeting places, mass transportation and indoor places of employment. 

PAVA LAPERE ACT

The Pava Marie LaPere Act prevents those convicted of first-degree rape and most violent sex crimes from earning early release diminution credits for good behavior.

“We’re just happy that other families can be protected,” Frank LaPere said. “We can’t bring her back, but we know that through this legislation, other families will not go through the grief we’ve had to go through.”

LaPere, a rising tech CEO in Baltimore where she founded EcoMap Technologies, was brutally murdered at her Mount Vernon apartment building in September 2023.

Jason Billingsley is in prison, charged with LaPere’s killing, as well as a sexual assault and arson at a nearby complex. 

Billingsley is a convicted felon and registered sex offender who was released in 2022 on parole. He pleaded guilty to sexual assault in 2015 and was sentenced to 30 years, with all but 14 suspended. He only served seven, though, being released in October 2022 because he earned enough diminution credits.

LaPere’s murder called for change. 

NEW VEHICLE FEES

Maryland drivers will have to pay about 60 percent more to register their vehicle. For a typical passenger car, drivers will have to pay $110 per year for their Maryland plates. Currently, Marylanders pay $135 to register their vehicles for two years.