EXPERTS’ GUIDE TO CANNABIS USE: To help you navigate the wild new world of weed, here’s a detailed and no-nonsense, science-based guide to shopping for and using cannabis products, for newbies or veteran tokers — with input from two of the country’s top cannabis experts. Michael Hughes/The Baltimore Banner.
ALL ABOUT CANNABIS, IN COMIC FORM: For an easy to understand guide to legal recreational and medical cannabis use at home, in an apartment, in public etc., here it is, in comic form. Laila Milevski and Brenda Wintrode/The Baltimore Banner.
CANNABIS AS STATE REVENUE GENERATOR: $54M IN FEES, TAXES: State regulators estimate the adult-use industry will generate as much as $600 million in first year sales, bring in $54 million in revenue from licensing fees and taxes, with about $19.7 million going to the Cannabis Public Fund, Cannabis Business Assistance Fund, Community Reinvestment and Repair Fund, and to county and state budgets. Katie Shepherd and Erin Cox/The Washington Post.
KIDS AND CANNABIS: Some experts and educators are concerned cannabis could be more available and appear more acceptable and harm-free to kids. A quarter of Maryland high schoolers already report having used it. Legalization “will likely lead some students to believe that all use of marijuana is legal,” said Brian Bassett, a spokesman for Howard County Public Schools. “We expect that this misperception, combined with potentially easier access to cannabis, might cause an increase in use among our student population.” Meredith Cohn and Sunny Nagpaul/The Baltimore Banner.
COOKING WITH CANNABIS: With the impending launch of Maryland’s recreational cannabis market on July 1, Chef Jazmine Moore’s catering schedule stands to get even busier. Cannabis you can smoke has been a focus as the state’s dispensaries gear up for the weekend, but those within the industry expect that edibles will eat up a significant chunk of the market, too. Cannabis-infused cooking, meanwhile, is on the rise as people look for new ways to incorporate recreational cannabis into their lives. Amanda Yeager/The Baltimore Sun.
LAW SEEKS TO AID STUDENT TEACHERS AS THEY EMBARK ON PROFESSION: Part of the work behind Gov. Wes Moore’s Maryland Educator Shortage Reduction Act (House Bill 1219), which goes into effect Saturday, began last year with conversations among Maryland college students at a conference in Chicago. One said she and other education majors spent thousands of dollars on gas, food, clothing and classroom materials while enrolled in unpaid internships, a problem that the law hopes to end in the future. William Ford/Maryland Matters.
GAS TAX AUTOMATICALLY RISING SATURDAY … It’s going to cost more to fill up a gas tank starting Saturday, because the state’s gas tax goes up again. The state’s portion of the gas tax will be 47 cents per gallon, up from 42.7 cents, as part of an annual adjustment that links the tax to inflation. Pamela Wood/The Baltimore Banner.
…AND MOORE WANTS LAW CHANGED: Ahead of a five-cent hike Saturday in the state’s gas tax, Gov. Wes Moore is calling on the General Assembly to address the state’s automatic increases, which he said are harmful to the financial bottom lines of working-class families, when it reconvenes in January. Hannah Gaskill/The Baltimore Sun.
U.S. REP. HARRIS GETS A GOP CHALLENGER: Rep. Andy Harris, R-1st, whose district encompasses the Eastern Shore and who has been the sole Republican in the state’s congressional delegation for more than a decade is being challenged in the Republican primary by Chris Bruneau, a U.S. Army veteran and business owner, who has filed with the Federal Election Commission, and announced his candidacy earlier this month. Neither has filed with the State Board of Elections. Dwight Weingarten/The Hagerstown Herald Mail.
REMEMBERING SLAIN CAPITAL GAZETTE STAFF: Annapolis leaders on Wednesday held a ceremony at the Guardians of the First Amendment memorial, which was established June 2021. City and statewide leadership was in attendance, as were many of the family members and friends of the victims of the Capital Gazette killings five years ago: Rob Hiaasen. Wendi Winters. Gerald Fischman. Rebecca Smith. John McNamara. Ulysses Muñoz/The Baltimore Banner.
The Columbia Flier building on Little Patuxent Parkway was home to the essential community newspaper for many years. Photo by Len Lazarick.
SUN KILLS COLUMBIA FLIER NEWSPAPER: The Columbia Flier newspaper, once essential reading in the early decades of the planned community in Howard County, will no longer be published, the Baltimore Sun Media Group announced Thursday. The final edition of the newspaper is being delivered free to homes in Columbia, as it has been for the past 54 years. For much of that time, this paper ran more than 100 pages a week, but in recent years, it has been a ghost of its former self. Len Lazarick/MarylandReporter.com
