Maryland legalized medical marijuana all the way back in April of 2014, albeit with a glaring issue in the legislation.

The State of Maryland will begin issuing licenses for medical marijuana growers and processors as early as next month.

The program had been delayed for more than a year as state officials revised regulations and fees.

But Darrell Carrington, executive director of the Maryland Cannabis Industry Association, said expectant patients are one step closer to being able to fill their prescriptions.

"Well obviously, we're all very excited that patients will finally be getting access to the medicine they've been waiting for."

A group of local doctors plans to open a medical marijuana testing facility in Columbia to ensure product quality in anticipation of a burgeoning therapeutic cannabis industry in Maryland.  

Testing is required by state law for cannabis growers, and this provided an opportunity for the group of four doctors, led by Dr. Andrew Rosenstein, chief of the division of gastroenterology at University of Maryland St. Joseph Medical Center.

He said they were mindful of potential threats to some of their sickest patients from contaminants that could complicate conditions rather than alleviate pain and other symptoms.

At least two religious leaders in Maryland are among the applicants for a limited number of medical marijuana licenses that will be issued by the state, the Washington Post reported.

“In the first chapter of the Bible, God creates plants and tells us that they are very good, and they are for our use,” said Rabbi Jeffrey Kahn. “God has created these things for our benefit.”

The Baltimore Ravens have released offensive tackle and medical marijuana advocate Eugene Monroe. Monroe has become increasingly outspoken during the last couple of months about the positive aspects of marijuana in comparison to the dangers that come with the league's use of opioids. While the Ravens didn't implicitly say parting ways with the 29-year-old was the direct result of his stance on weed, the team's website did address it in their post announcing his release.

Maryland’s state medical marijuana commission delivered a blow to marijuana advocates and would-be entrepreneurs recently by abruptly capping the number of businesses that can process marijuana into pills, oils and other products.

The commission also gave conflicting information about when the first long-awaited growing licenses would be issued, with Executive Director Patrick Jameson first saying it would be late summer or early fall, then stating that licenses would come “weeks” after the evaluations of the applications are completed in early July.

At the commission’s first public meeting in months, marijuana advocates and entrepreneurs complained about the slow pace and the secrecy of the process.

A group of Maryland-based Black investors are pooling their money in order to invest in one of the many medicinal marijuana businesses hoping to get approval from the state of Maryland in the coming months.

The group, made up of 18 African American CEOs, is investing in Green Thumbs Industries, Maryland, a division of Illinois-based Green Thumbs Industries. Sterling Cooper, a general manager and part owner of the company, assembled the investors. The parent company currently operates three medical marijuana dispensaries in Illinois. Illinois patients were able to begin buying medicinal marijuana in late 2015 and the number of participants is currently in the thousands.

The vast healing properties of the cannabis plant are becoming more and more widely known. The actual scientific knowledge behind why and how cannabinoids are an invaluable treatment and medication is sadly not widespread. Often misunderstood and misinterpreted, some studies involving the treatment and effects of cannabis on medical patients have sometimes been taken into the realm of pseudoscience by otherwise well-meaning cannabis activists and advocates. As with anything else in life, it’s imperative we have all the facts down before we attempt to explain them to others.   

Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance (DPA) and one of the most recognized speakers in drug-policy circles, doesn’t mince words when he gets up to talk at marijuana industry events. “Frankly,” he often says, “I am not interested in meeting most you.” The only people he wants to talk to, he tells his audiences, are those who are going to make a lot of money in the new marijuana industry in an ethical way and are interested in certain social issues that could make them ideal foot soldiers in the wider struggle against the global war on drugs.

While it's still controversial, medical marijuana is edging toward normality. Forty states (and the District of Columbia) now have some form of law on the books that allow the drug to be used for a variety of ailments, and sales are soaring— reaching $5.4 billion in 2015.

That doesn't mean it's widely available in all of those states, of course. Some, like Alabama and South Carolina, have extremely strict circumstances under which cannabidiol products can be prescribed, and still forbid the production and distribution of the drug. And even in states where it's easier to come by, there are differences in how it's handled.