CBD oil in Maryland. What the law says, where, and how you can find CBD products.
Meta Title: CBD oil in Maryland. What the law says, where, and how you can find CBD products.
Meta Description: Marijuana laws in Maryland allow hemp-based CBD to be sold freely. We look at how this law evolved and how you can access the products it avails both online and in walk-in shops.
CBD Oil in Maryland 2020
You probably are here looking for information in CBD because you have heard of its various benefits. Regulations on CBD are different at different levels of government, and they can be quite confusing. Some CBD is from industrial hemp, which is generally tolerated better by law. Some is from cannabis, and it is less beloved. The rules are still evolving, and they change from time to time. With all these variables, it is a wise move to try and understand the law as it is from jurisdiction to jurisdiction and from time to time. The following is a review of CBD oil in Maryland in 2020.
Marijuana Legal Status in Maryland
Maryland, like many other states, has, in the recent past, worked to streamline their marijuana laws. The general movement of these laws is towards making them more lenient. It is important to note that the state of Maryland, though it hasn’t legalized recreational marijuana, has mostly decriminalized its possession and use.
In the year 2010, Maryland had the highest rate of convictions due to marijuana possession in the United States. At the time, having and using any amount of cannabis was a criminal offense. The number of arrests reduced somewhat in 2013 when medical marijuana was legalized (we are going to talk about this later). However, it was still a crime to have pot. This state of affairs continued until 2014. The state legislature passed a bill that reclassified possession to a civil infraction. Any person found in possession of 10g or less of weed would be liable to pay a fine of up to $100. While possession of marijuana was legal, possession of marijuana paraphernalia was still illegal. The law prohibited possession of rolling papers, bongs, and so on, and it didn’t allow smoking marijuana publicly. The general assembly changed this in 2016 and imposed penalties similar to those levied for possession of marijuana.
The Law and Medical Marijuana in Maryland
The very first law on medical marijuana in Maryland was passed in 2003, and it was named the Darrell Putman Compassionate Act. It got its name from a retired Army Green Beret who was a Maryland native. Putman died in 199, and he had become an advocate for the legalization of medical marijuana to help cancer patients manage their symptoms.
This Act didn’t make medical marijuana legal, but it reduced the sentence to a misdemeanor for patients who were found in possession of less than an ounce of marijuana. Such patients would then be liable for a fine not exceeding $100. At this point, the law didn’t specify which conditions were eligible, and it was, therefore, somewhat open-ended.
This failure to define eligible conditions was addressed in 2011. The General assembly outlined the specific terms for which a person could use the affirmative defense that had been made available by the Darrell Putman Act. It also removed the misdemeanor charge for patients found in possession, but it retained the fine of a maximum of $100. The law outlined that a qualifying patient would have to be at least 18 years of age and also be in possession certification of their ailment by a bona fide doctor. This act also limited the type of marijuana whose use was permissible to only leaves and flowers.
Physicians who recommended the use of weed were required by law to indicate why marijuana was a better option than conventional medicine. Possible reasons, according to the bill included:
- When conventional medicine would be ineffective
- When other medicine would have more severe side effects or
- When a patient was vulnerable to addiction if they used more conventional treatment options. A good example would be when the alternative treatment involved the use of opiates.
Qualification of patients, according to illnesses, include as follows:
- Patients with the following symptoms:
- Sustained and severe nausea, cachexia, anorexia, acute muscle spasm, and chronic pain. It may be that the person doesn’t have a disease that causes such symptoms, but they are going through treatment that has them as side effects. They, too, are eligible to use medical marijuana.
The General Assembly further developed medical marijuana-related laws in 2013. This amendment recognized that some of the eligible patients might be too sick to source weed for themselves. It allowed caregivers who were themselves not necessarily eligible to use the affirmative defense the same way a qualified patient would. It also allowed the Academic Medical Centers in the state to research marijuana.
This law also set up the Natalie M. LaParade Medical Marijuana Commission. This commission is the body charged with the responsibility of putting in place regulations on everything to do with medical marijuana in the state.
The law developed further in 2014 when the state General Assembly passed HB 881/SB 923. This law further expanded and elaborated protections available for all players in the medical marijuana chain. These include doctors, patients, and caregivers. It also established dispensaries from which users could legally acquire marijuana.
The law allows the users and their caregivers to stock up to 30 days worth of product at a time, but it explicitly prohibits the growth of cannabis even by licensed users. Under this law, there is no list of conditions that qualify an individual to use marijuana in their management. The commission has the discretion to either come up with a list of diseases or to come up with a way of identifying eligible individuals in any other way. Currently, the commission hasn’t come up with a list of ailments.
Physicians are required to seek the Commission’s permission when prescribing weed. The applications are then evaluated on a case by case basis. The law, further, opened up the stage for medical marijuana by allowing more health practitioners to recommend the use of medical marijuana to patients. This function was, up to this point, the preserve of physicians but now dentists, nurse practitioners, podiatrists, and midwives.
Farming Marijuana in Maryland
Growing of marijuana in Maryland is governed by the House Bill 443, which was passed by the state legislature in 2016. The bill allowed the department of agriculture to grow industrial hemp for purposes of research. It also made it possible for institutions of higher learning to grow industrial hemp for research purposes. The bill also allows other entities and individual farmers to grow the hemp as an agricultural enterprise. This law gives the department of agriculture sweeping powers concerning licensing and developing protocols on hemp farming. The Department of Agriculture also provided the official designation of areas and pieces of land as hemp growing areas.
Cannabis vs. Hemp
The Farm Bill – 2018 made a distinction between industrial hemp and other strains of cannabis. The distinction made it possible for hemp to be treated differently from the more psychoactive strains.
This law didn’t only allow hemp farming. It also made it legal to conduct research on the plants and make products out of it. Growing, processing, possession, and usage of other marijuana strains remained illegal at the federal level.
Some states have gone ahead to legalize all strains of marijuana for recreational or therapeutic use. This means that the legal distinction between industrial hemp and other strains of cannabis is null within the borders of such states. However, as we observed earlier, this is not the case with Maryland; all strains of marijuana are illegal except for industrial hemp.
Do You Need a Medical Card for CBD in Maryland?
People who use marijuana for medical reasons usually require the recommendation of physicians as per the law. This recommendation enables you to get a medical marijuana card from the department of health. The medical marijuana card is necessary for a patient or their caregiver as it allows them to possess marijuana without having charges proffered against them. Where a person has a doctor’s recommendation to use CBD, they only need a medical marijuana card if they want to use CBD derived from cannabis. CBD derived from hemp is readily available to all people as long as it has the federally recommended THC content of below 0.3%.
Where to Buy CBD Oil in Maryland
Before we look at individual shops, let us look at the biggest and the most diverse source of CBD. The internet.
E-commerce for CBD has its challenges like it does in all other sectors of the economy. The main among these challenges include the fact that you can only verify the quality of a product after you have received it. The seller may have hyped their products as the best CBD for anxiety or whatever other condition you want it to help you manage. You will only be sure whether this is the case when you receive the goods.
There have been cases in e-commerce where your CBD product can be shipped to the wrong address, and that can be very frustrating. By now, you may be wondering why anyone would consider buying their CBD gummies or other products online. We are looking at the online option because it could be amazing if the challenges were mitigated.
It has the widest possible variety of products. Many of the leading CBD companies have been working hard in research and development. New, more effective ways of taking CBD to get introduced in the market every day.
Let’s show you what to look out for before you place your order for CBD oil in any of its formulations at an online outlet.
- Customer Reviews
We have already observed that your inability to visit an online shop and ask questions is a significant limitation. It denies you the opportunity to assess the seller and to ask questions before committing your money and your well-being.
Customer reviews are the second-best way to get a proper assessment of the company and the products. When they come naturally, customer reviews are usually random and honest. This means that the first thing you need to do is to ensure that they have not been doctored. Most CBD sellers have sufficient integrity no to doctor the reviews. To be sure, however, it may be a good idea for you to not only look at reviews on the seller’s website but also those on independent pages.
In these reviews, look out for customer reviews on the company’s efficiency in shipping, whether they offer good customer support and such other administrative matters. You should also ensure you check for previous customers’ comments on the quality and effectiveness of their products. It is unlikely that you will find anyone with all positive reviews on any of the categories. If, however, you find a vendor who has a significant percentage of negative reviews, you should avoid doing business with them. As a general rule of the thumb, only consider sellers who have a rating of four stars and above.
- Quality Control Measures
People use CBD products to help them to manage symptoms of certain illnesses. There is a considerable body of research that suggests that CBD helps in the management of the said problems. It is vital to note that the FDA hasn’t approved CBD as a drug for many of the issues for which it is used. What this means is that there are no firm governmental structures where quality control for CBD products is concerned. Manufacturers, therefore, have to come up with ways to reassure their customers on the quality and safety of their products. The following are some of the methods they use to do that.
- Source of hemp: – Hemp is the primary raw material used in the manufacture of CBD. It is essential to find out where the hemp was grown because, among other things, hemp is a bio-accumulator. It stores everything it absorbs from the soil within itself. This includes toxins in the ground on which it grows. This characteristic of hemp is the reason why the best hemp is organically grown because most toxins that find their way into the soil come from agrochemicals, and organic farming uses no chemicals. There are many countries in which crops said to have been grown organically are not entirely organic. Whether the hemp is natural or not depends on how strict related government protocols are in those countries. Federal and state governments in the US take the enforcement of organic farming very seriously. If they certify hemp as natural, then you can be sure it contains no toxins. You remember that earlier, we mentioned that the Maryland Department of Agriculture designates land as being fit for hemp farming. One of the reasons why they do this is to ensure the soil has no toxins and that the land is for organic farming. With all this information, you now understand why products made from American hemp are usually the best.
- Extraction Method: – The other quality control measure you should look out for is how the manufacturers obtain the extract from hemp. Some extraction methods use solvents such as ethanol. When a solvent has been used, extraction must be followed by distillation to remove any residual solvent from the hemp extract. The residue might either be toxic, or it may debase the structure of cannabinoids in the extract. The supercritical CO2 method doesn’t use any solvents. It is efficient and clean, which means that the extract will be free from toxins. As much as possible, therefore, order from manufacturers who use the supercritical CO2 extraction method.
- Third-Party testing: – This is where a manufacturer commissions a suitably certified lab to analyze their final product and find out what it contains. Third-party testing is typically used as a way of verifying the claims manufacturers make on the composition, purity, and quality of their products. The Certificates of Analysis generated from these tests should then be made public for you to see precisely what is in the product.
Once you have found an online seller who meets the above requirements, you can go ahead and place your order. You can also make these considerations when buying from a walk-in store.
Walk-In CBD Shops
The following are some shops from which you can buy CBD in Maryland.
- Baltimore
- Pure Life Wellness
Located on 35 E Cross St, Baltimore, MD 21230, this is purely a cannabis store that is well stocked with all types of marijuana products, including CBD dominant ones. They have the best CBD oil for Parkinson’s and other chronic conditions. The shop has a pleasant ambiance, and it has well-informed attendants to help you make the right decision. They open from 11.00 am and close at 5.00 pm from Tuesday to Sunday. The shop remains closed on Mondays. This establishment has an impressive 4.9-star customer rating.
- GreenLabs
This shop is located at 1522 Eastern Ave, Baltimore, MD 21231. It is from 10.00 am to 8.00 pm every day. This gives you more time to visit and get what you need. They have a customer rating of 4.8 stars, and they are a cannabis shop with a wide variety of products.
- Frederick
- Green Health Docs Frederic
This outlet is located on 304 Delaware Rd, Frederick, MD 21701. Medical professionals from different specialties established it. Most of them specialize in areas related to pain, and their focus is to produce CBD as one of the alternatives to opioids. By so doing, they make their contribution to the war against opioid addiction. This establishment has the advantage of being run by doctors, which means they can offer you proper medical advice concerning your use of CBD. Customers who have previously been there given it a 4.9-star rating.
- Kannavis
This shop’s address is 8709 Fingerboard Rd, Frederick, MD 21704. The establishment focusses on selling cannabis products with CBD being its most traded commodity. It has an excellent 4.7-star rating for the full range of products they have, well-informed staff, and beautiful ambiance. The shop opens at 11.00 am and closes at 5.00 pm from Monday to Saturday.
- Rockville
- Peak ReLeaf
It is located in 2001 Chapman Ave, Rockville, MD 20852, and it has a 4.8-star customer rating. The shop has a wide variety of CBD products for you to choose from. The products are available in different formulations. The staff are both friendly and well informed on their inventory and CBD in general.
- Liberty
Liberty’s address is 12001 Nebel St, Rockville, MD 20852. It is a cannabis shop, and it, therefore, has a well-focused inventory to meet your needs. They open from 11.00 am to 7.00 pm from Monday to Saturday and from 12.00 noon to 5.00 pm on Sundays.
2020 News about CBD in Maryland
Like all other businesses, CBD business has been adversely affected by Covid-19. Marijuana businesses in the state have been in the vanguard of making adjustments. They seek to ensure that customers get services while observing social distancing. All this is possible because the governor of Maryland declared marijuana shops to be among essential businesses.
On matters to do with legalization, the state legislature is likely to spend more of its time trying to find ways to revive the economy. However, the general trend of legislation in Maryland is moving towards making it more and more accessible.
Final Thoughts
The law, as it is in Maryland, makes it possible for you to quickly access hemp products across the state. If there will be amendments and further improvements in the law, it will be to provide a more efficient control and taxation regime.