The Maryland Medical Cannabis Commission voted unanimously in the first stage of the licensing procedure. It also voted for five growers and five processors as alternates, in the cent that any of the top 15 in each category ends up not receiving a license.

“This is not the end of the race,” said Harry “Buddy” Robshaw. the vice chairman of the commission. “Obviously it may be only the fist or second lap, but this is real important.”

In a surprise twist in Friday’s meeting, the commission announced that two grower applicants initially placed in the top 15 were bumped to spots 16 and 17, because the top 15 did not include the geographic representation noted in the law. Companies that initially placed in the 21st and 20th spots were moved into the 14th and 15th positions.

“The toughest part of the decision was who gets displaced,” Robshaw said. “We wanted to have a fair distribution across the state, and the only fair way it struck us to do that was to look at the places that had the most density of pre-approved applications and take the lowest rank from there so that we could move them down. We then moved those people into the 16th and 17th positions, which is right outside the top 15 but within the top 20. We agonized about this a lot, and the decision was not unanimous.”

The announcement sparked chatter after the meeting in a lecture hall at the University of Maryland Medical School in Baltimore.

“There may be some scrutiny, certainly by applicants who were either No. 14 or 15 who wound up in Place 16 and 17 who weren’t given the opportunity to say they would relocate,” said Rebecca Gasca, a medical marijuana industry consultant associated with two applicants in the process.

The panel chose from 145 grower license applications and 124 processor applications. The state’s law currently allows 15 growers and 15 processors. The commission made its choices based on a double-blind review of applications by Towson University’s Regional Economic Studies Institute. That means the names of the companies and reviewers were redacted.

The names of the companies that are selected Friday won’t be made public until Aug. 15. After initial approval, the commission will conduct financial due diligence and background investigations on the companies.

Maryland lawmakers passed legislation to allow medical cannabis in the state in 2014. Medical marijuana isn’t expected to be available under the state’s regulations until sometime in 2017.

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Sponsored by Washington Republican, Delegate Brett Wilson, the bill would roll back the decriminalization of marijuana last year and make it a misdemeanor to consume marijuana in a public place.

Delegate Marc Korman, Montgomery Democrat, said that smoking marijuana in public is already illegal under the decriminalization law, and the bill is harsh punishment.

Prince George’s Democrat, Delegate Joseline Pena-Melnyk, argued that such a law would disproportionate effect on black people and the criminal records it would create would prevent any young blacks from getting higher education and jobs.

However, Delegate Vanessa Atterbeary, Howard Democrat, claimed that she must avoid certain public spaces with her young children to prevent them from breathing in secondhand marijuana smoke.

She said in a passionate floor speech, “What are we saying if we don’t pass this?”.

The bill was approved 102 to 34, after a lengthy floor debate.

The bill was one of dozens of bills passed on “crossover” day, the deadline for each chamber to approve legislation and send it to the other chamber for consideration.

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