Blue Crab Botanicals look to obtain medical cannabis cultivation license

The personal consumption of medical cannabis that is grown and distributed through state licensed facilities is now legal in Maryland. Fifteen Marijuana cultivation licenses will eventually be approved. Even though the state is not accepting applications yet, one group on the Eastern Shore is already preparing to make sure they are a contender.

Robin Hurni is a co-founder of Blue Crab Botanicals, a small business out of Denton hoping to get licensed to grow medical medical cannabis.

Hurni says, “It’s exciting to be in Maryland right now. It’s exciting to be apart of this business in the United States. It’s brand new. We’re writing history.”

Hurni and her co-founder Dr. Eva Dickinson have been working on this project for about two years. Their lab is well-stocked with the usual lab equipment. However, what you won’t find is soil. They plan to grow the cannabis in their own private garage using aeroponics that is in an environment of air or mist.

Dr. Eva Dickinson, Blue Crab Botanicals co-founder “you will save hundreds of thousands of dollars of gallons of water which lets be honest is going to be increasing as a scarcity as a resource as go in.”

Aeroponics would also use fewer pesticides and less space. As the medical advisor of the operation, Dr. Dickinson says her focus is on researching territory that is still relatively uncharted.

Dr. Dickinson says, “We know it helps patients with pain, but there’s been no very good studies showing that because it wasn’t legal. You couldn’t do standardized studies. I think it’s time that we do it.”

Dr. Dickinson believes medical marijuana can make major strides as an alternative to synthetic painkillers.

Dr. Dickinson continues, “The survivorship for solid cancers has not increased in the last 20 years. Pain has become like an epidemic. One in ten patients will have some type of chronic pain during their life. The amount of heroin overdoses in the last 2 years has increased by 60 percent.”

This is a trend both Hurni and Dr.Dickinson believe they can help reverse.

Hurni says, “This is our community. I don’t know that you’re gonna get that from these folks that are making these big warehouse places. We’re going to be the boutique grow that really gets it right.”

The Maryland Medical Cannabis Commission has not chosen a exact date for the release of the license applications.