Baltimore Expect Jobs Growth With Medical Marijuana

Officials see medical marijuana plants as source of jobs rather than purveyors of vice

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By Michael Dresser

The Baltimore Sun

Hagerstown - Washington County is a proudly conservative place. Voters haven’t backed a Democrat for president since 1964, and same-sex marriage lost by a landslide in a referendum three years ago.

But when Chicago-based Green Thumb Industries pitched a proposal to put a medical marijuana production plant here, the county’s five county commissioners — Republicans all — passed a resolution unanimously supporting the plan.

Residents in Hagerstown, the county seat, seem to be taking the news in stride. The consensus: yes to marijuana for relieving pain, no to recreational use.

“I think it’s all right as long as it’s only for medical. I don’t want a lot of potheads,” said Leo Myers, 61, a security worker at the Mack Truck plant.

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