SNOW HILL, Md.- Snow Hill hosted a discussion about cannabis dispensaries Tuesday night. The town’s moratorium on cannabis ends June 2024, so the town will have to make some decisions by the summer.
According to state law, towns cannot ban dispensaries, but it can set guidelines, for example, how far a dispensary must be from a school.
Snow Hill’s mayor Mike Pruitt says he was pleased with Tuesday night’s turn out and the questions from the public.
"It was well represented across town, the council was excited and our panel was excellent," said Pruitt. "This whole cannabis idea has been coming and tonight's purpose was to gain some information from some knowledgeable people and to hear from some of the residents and worries or concerns they may or may not have."
The town invited a panel of experts to field questions from the public and council members. Panel guests included a member of the Maryland Cannabis Administration, The Worcester County Department of Health and the Worcester County Department of Social Services. Pruitt says their expertise was helpful to the town.
"If someone wants to come and open up a business to sell to grow to distribute, we need to make sure our zoning is in place and that our citizens would embrace it or not, and we need to determine those factors first," said Pruitt.
One panel member was Robert Davis, Owner and Clinical Director of Hi Tide in West Ocean City.
“Being that, I have experience already operating for six years in the same county, just helping them with workflow and figuring out traffic control, and things that I directly have information on,” said Davis.
“Educating the legislators and answering questions for the people that might have concerns about cannabis being in their town being able to help them I think is good being able to answer questions is good because we have been operational for six years and we understand how it works,” said Davis.
The town council said it would likely have more special meetings like Tuesday night as it decides how to handle the potential of dispensaries coming to town.
