Mitchell Trellis is putting everything on the line for a chance at what could be one of the most lucrative new business opportunities in Maryland: medical marijuana.

Trellis’ company, Maryland Wellness Access LLC, is among those gearing up to compete for one of 15 licenses Maryland will issue to cultivate cannabis and sell it to dispensaries. Trellis thinks the company’s best shot for a strong application — and being able to open for business — is to have the company ready to fire out of the gate, should Maryland give the signal.

“This is a heavy lift,” Trellis said. “This is kind of a difficult situation for an entrepreneur. You have to invest upfront without the promise of winning, then have the resources set up if you do win.”

ANNAPOLIS, Md. — Governor Larry Hogan (R-MD) vetoed three bills on Friday that contained major criminal justice reforms, including one which reduced penalties related to cannabis use.

SB 517 contained legislation to reduce marijuana paraphernalia penalties to a civil offense. The governor also vetoed two other bills: SB 528, which would have limited asset forfeiture seized by police, and HB 980, which would have restored the right to vote to felons who have been released from prison.

Marijuana's active ingredient can show up in tests even for nonsmokers, if they've had concentrated exposure to secondhand smoke.

That's one of the findings from the first comprehensive study on secondhand marijuana smoke since the 1980s, conducted by the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. In the decades since then, the potency of the drug, in its street form, has tripled.

It’s a rare education seminar that includes this shot across the bow: “Everything and anything we’re talking about today is federally illegal—there is no grey area.” Yet that’s the warning that course facilitator Doug Porter issued to the dozen students attending a one-day workshop held by the Cannabis Career Institute (CCI) at a Baltimore airport hotel on a recent rainy Saturday. “I don’t want you to be negged out by this,” he said. “If you’re crossing your T’s and dotting your I’s, chances are you’ll never spend a day in jail.”

As legal marijuana gains favor across the country, how do we make sure kids don't get their hands on it?

Researchers from Johns Hopkins University's Bloomberg School of Public Health suggest looking at the alcohol and tobacco industries as guideposts.

Even though several US states have voted to legalize marijuana, it's still not clear how best to regulate it. But there are steps that legislators can take to prevent the newly legal drug from falling into the hands of minors, according to researchers from Johns Hopkins University's Bloomberg School of Public Health. A new report in the medical journal Pediatrics outlines four tested tactics for proposed regulation.

No, The Wire does not explain what's happening in Baltimore this week, asmy colleague Alyssa Rosenberg wrote yesterday. Still, the show's creator and former Baltimore Sun reporter David Simon knows a lot more about the city than most of us. And in a wide-ranging and riveting interviewwith The Marshall Project today, he offers an unequivocal assessment of how to turn things around in that city today.

"So do you see how this ends or how it begins to turn around?" Bill Keller asks him.

Jason Miskiri kept his role in a $US12 million drug ring a secret for years.

Lots of people thought they knew Jason Miskiri.

The quiet kid from Guyana who moved to Maryland at age five and whose obsession with basketball led to a starring role at George Mason University and, later, to a brief appearance in the National Basketball Association.

The community pillar who donated to charities, hosted Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners for the homeless and held a basketball camp each summer for local children.

Jason Miskiri, the quiet kid from Guyana whose obsession with basketball led to a brief appearance in the NBA. 

WASHINGTON -- Multiple members of Congress suggested Wednesday that the misguided policies of the drug war have played a central role in brewing tensions between police and residents in Baltimore that exploded into chaos after the death of 25-year-old Freddie Gray.

At a press conference for a new bill that would ensure legal marijuana businesses have access to the banking system, the lawmakers advocated for changes to the nation's drug policies. Reforms would start to address the racial disparities in law enforcement and mass incarceration that the decades-long war on drugs has produced in the U.S., they said.

ANNAPOLIS, MD — Lawmakers in Maryland gave final approval to a bill on Saturday that will decriminalize the possession of marijuana paraphernalia in the state.

The House of Delegates approved the measure, Senate Bill 517, by a vote of 83-53.  The bill previously passed the Senate by a vote of 32-13.  The bill now heads to the desk of Governor Larry Hogan for final approval.

Senate Bill 517 does not apply fines to possessing marijuana paraphernalia; instead the bill simply excludes items “involving the use or possession of marijuana” from the definition of drug paraphernalia in the state’s criminal code.