The Maryland Cannabis Commission announced on Monday that it will hire a consultant to review what steps, if any , it could take to improve diversity in the state's nascent medical marijuana industry.

The consultant determines if it is feasible to conduct a study of whether minorities have been unfairly excluded from the industry, among other tasks. Such a determination might allow Maryland to consider race when awarding licenses to grow, process or distribute marijuana for medical use.

The announcement will follow the filing of a lawsuit, reporting the commission improperly ignored race when testing applicants for licenses, and calls by African-American lawmakers to halt the licensing process.

Almost all the firms which have won preliminary licenses are owned by white men. A state law requires the commission to "actively seek to achieve" racial diversity.
The commission had said that it was following the advice of the state attorney general's office while it declined to include race-based selection criteria in applications.

The attorney general's office said that it would be unconstitutional to do so without first completing a disparity study.

Hiring a consultant would not delay the licensing process according to the officials. The commission thought to award final licenses to grow, process and dispense the drug in time for the entire program to be up and running this summer.

By Prakriti Neogi