Maryland’s black state lawmakers are weighing options to ensure that the state’s nascent medical marijuana industry includes its fair share of minority-owned businesses.

The Legislative Black Caucus, which comprises 45 of the General Assembly’s 188 members, has criticized the lack of racial diversity in an independent commission’s licensing of 15 companies to grow and 15 businesses to process the drug. Only one grower license and one processor license were awarded last month to businesses with some sort of minority leadership.

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The Frederick County Council is considering a disputed proposal to allow medical marijuana cultivation on land zoned for agriculture.

County land-use regulations currently allow medical marijuana cultivation only in industrial zones. The Frederick County Farm Bureau opposes the bill, which is scheduled for a vote Tuesday evening.

Opponents say they consider medical marijuana cultivation a form of drug production. Critics also have raised security concerns.

Supporters include local farmer Larry Gude, who applied for but did not receive one of the 15 preliminary grower licenses that the Maryland Cannabis Commission awarded earlier this month. Gude and a business partner had planned to grow marijuana in a greenhouse on his family farm.

The state's medical cannabis commission plans to reveal its rankings of prospective growers and processors this week, as complaints mount about the lack of diversity among the winning companies.

Dr. Paul Davies, chairman of the medical cannabis commission, said the selections were made without commissioners knowing the identity or background of the applicants. He said he's "very happy" that some of the winning companies are run by women or racial minorities.

Racial diversity was was not a factor in deciding which applicants were awarded licenses to grow and process the drug this month.

Maryland entrepreneurs seeking to get into the marijuana business will have a new boost of extra help following the rules thanks to a Colorado tech firm.

Maryland law firm Offit Kurman, which has offices in Bethesda and Baltimore, formed an exclusive alliance with Denver-based Adherence Compliance to offer automated compliance software and services for the cannabis industry, it announced Friday.

The technology conducts audits and provides quantitative risk assessment applications and consulting services for companies in states that have legalized marijuana for medical or recreational purposes.

There are two finalists for licenses from the Maryland Medical Cannabis Commission in Worcester County.  One processor and one grower made the final 15, respectively.  Economic leaders in Worcester County believe the two cannabis business could provide a big economic boost to the county.

The state has awarded preliminary licenses to more than 20 companies to grow and process marijuana in Maryland, a major step forward in the effort to make medical cannabis available to patients in Maryland.

Licenses were awarded Monday to companies across the state, from Washington County in Western Maryland to Worcester County on the Eastern Shore. They plan to grow marijuana plants and turn them into pills, oils, extracts and other products for patients suffering from a range of illnesses.

Several of the winning applicants have political connections.

The addition of heat to common pesticides can create poison. Organic Maryland LLC has a safe solution that uses no chemical pesticides.

It was a only a matter of weeks after the November 6th deadline to apply for a Maryland medical cannabis grower’s license before the public outcry over Colorado recalls began. In March of this year, the Denver Post reported more than 10 recalls in less than a month. A commonly used pesticide has driven massive recalls in Colorado, prompting concerns over crop safety and product integrity, particularly within the state of Maryland.

Researchers in Maryland and Arizona are looking for veteran volunteers to smoke up to two joints a day in a new study designed to find out if marijuana helps relieve symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder.

“We’re not arguing that cannabis is a cure, but our hypothesis is that it will at least reduce the symptoms,” says physician and study organizer Dr. Sue Sisley.

The $2.2 million study, paid for by a grant from the state of Colorado to the nonprofit Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, will be conducted at John Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, and Sisley’s Scottsdale Research Institute in Phoenix, Arizona.