CAMBRIDGE, Md. - Medical marijuana sales are booming in Maryland. And now, one dispensary in Dorchester County is joining the list of locations with its own grand opening on Tuesday.
The green cross and "Now Open" sign off the Sunburst Pharm building on Crusader Road is a Cambridge first. Co-owner Michael Dunaway has been working to open the dispensary since last year. It's now one of over 70 licensed across Maryland and one of two along the mid-shore. Dunaway says over 360 patients have already walked through their doors.
"It is pretty exciting," Dunaway said. "We've had our soft launch now for three weeks, so we've already been meeting some of the local patients here."
Still, some worry if the growing number of customers will bring bad business to town.
"I don't know if it's going to be any safer," Dorothy Jordan of Cambridge said. "We have enough problems."
But Dunaway says they've added bullet-proof glass and a security check-in measure, among a number of things, to keep both customers and product safe.
Just across the street, at the marijuana processing plant, Culta, head grower Jay Bouton says tight security and cameras have helped foster over $5 million in sales with thousands of plants growing inside.
"What we're doing here, we take very seriously," Bouton said. "We're here for the long haul. We're here for years."
Both Bouton and Dunaway say the business could add millions of dollars over time to the economy as well as jobs to a growing industry on the mid-shore.
Sunburst Pharm is, of course, not the first on the peninsula.
Delaware has one in all three counties. By 2015, the first dispensary was approved in Wilmington followed by Lewes in Sussex County and then Smyrna last June. Along with Sunburst Pharm in Cambridge, six other dispensaries have opened in Maryland, including one in Salisbury, Centreville, Elkton, Perryville and two in Ocean City.
Virginia's Eastern Shore currently has none.
Last year, Maryland medical marijuana sales hit around $100 million.