A federal judge denied a motion to halt the rollout of 179 cannabis licenses in Maryland on Tuesday, but the battle for the fate of the nascent recreational cannabis industry may not be over.
U.S. District Court Judge Brendan Hurson ruled against a motion brought by California attorney Jeffrey Jenson, who argued the state’s social equity program to award new cannabis licenses was unconstitutional. Jenson, who’s brought similar lawsuits in other states, contended that the state’s requirement that those applying for the license under the requirement of spending at least two years at a Maryland university where a minimum of 40% of students who attend are eligible for Pell Grants violated the dormant commerce clause, a legal doctrine that prevents states from passing regulations that disrupt interstate commerce.
The ruling has been anxiously awaited in the cannabis industry because Jensen successfully sued New York in a similar lawsuit. That legal action delayed the distribution of cannabis licenses for a large swath of New York state for months.
In the Maryland judge’s ruling, Hurson wrote that the District Court does not recognize that the dormant commerce clause applies to the recreational cannabis industry. He pointed out that Jensen’s main cases supporting the idea that the law applies to cannabis are rulings based on the medical market, which has a different federal standing than the recreational market.
Click here to read the rest of the article written by Matt Hooke over at Baltimore Business Journal
