La Plata, MD – The cannabis express appears to be picking up steam.

As the Charles County Planning Commission held a public hearing in La Plata Monday, Dec. 7 to hear from the public on the state’s initiative to allow applicants to grow, process or distribute medical marijuana, no one spoke out in opposition to the proposal.

In fact, it appears as if more than a few folks are jumping on the bandwagon.

“Somebody came to me with this idea and I originally said, ‘you have got to be out of your mind,’ ” farmer Cindy Beuchert of Bryantown told the planning commission.

Beuchert said her family has been in Southern Maryland since the 1600s, adding she was born and raised on a farm near Hughesville where tobacco was the primary crop until its demise in the 1990s.

She said that in addition to growing medicine, the prospect of growing medicinal cannabis not only allows the farmer to “give you medicine that is going to help you, not hurt you, it is also going to bring revitalization to the farm.

“Tobacco is what made America,” Beuchert pointed out. “This crop is going to help people instead of killing people.”

She implored county planners to, “Give us a cash crop we can have on this farm.”

Beuchert noted that growing and harvesting the crop is very similar to tobacco. She asked county planners to help keep the processing and distribution phases of the plan within the area where it is being grown.

“What a nightmare it would be if we had to transport it up to an industrial zone,” she said.

The state of Maryland is handling the application process, said Aimee Dailey, a planner with the Charles County Department of Planning and Growth Management.

Dailey said the county at this point has no idea how many applicants from Charles County there are, but two representatives from two of the applicants, Maryland Earthworks Inc. in La Plata and PhytaGenisis LLC in Bryantown, told the commission that both groups have applied for three separate permits to grow, process and distribute the medicine.

Chris Kelly, working in community relations for Maryland Earthworks, told the commission he believes in providing medicinal marijuana to those who need it.

“If I didn’t believe in this medicine 100 percent, I would not be here,” Kelly stated.

He said if their company is able to obtain all three licenses, at their peak they would hire 150 employees, half of whom would make $40,000 and above in salary. The company will provide health insurance for those who are full time workers. Kelly added the group would work closely with law enforcement and local government officials and intends to give back to the community, the Boys and Girls Club, food banks and local churches.

“We want to give back and be a very positive part of the community,” he said.

Kathe Koumoubeas, who is partners with Beuchert and Kim Williams at PhytaGenesis, said they have a particular strain of cannabis that’s never been anywhere in Maryland before.

“We were going to do this in California, but a former Montgomery County delegate urged us to stay in Maryland,” Koumoubeas said.

She told the board that the organization has already garnered $85,000 “just from friends,” and another $4 million from medical groups, “all interested in this strain.

“It doesn’t matter what anyone’s ethical standards are,” she said. “We have a right to clean medicine. The biggest issue is pesticides showing up in lab tests and energy costs.”

She said PhytaGenesis has solved the energy costs by planning to grow the crop outside as opposed to utilizing grow lamps, and the crop will be grown organically.

“I’m retired law enforcement. I spent a good amount of time arresting people for selling and distributing drugs,” Beuchert stated. “I’ve seen how it can destroy lives firsthand. In 2013, my brother died because of his drug addiction. I had a huge wall in front of me when you mentioned growing marijuana, but the person who introduced me to the prospect said, ‘You need to see what we’re talking about. This is medicine.’

“After studying the issue more, my feeling now is that it’s a crime it hasn’t been out there for people a long time ago,” she admitted. “I had to climb over those walls.”

Contact Joseph Norris at joe.norris@thebaynet.com