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okay uh Im going to call uh the AL Maryland Alcohol Tobacco and cannabis commission meeting May 16 2024 in session uh we have uh Alan silberstein chairman Robert P secretary and Eric morset Commission uh which gives us a quorum and uh Id like for a motion to approve February 15 2024 minute meeting minutes so I need a motion please Ill motion that I need a second second all right motion a second all those those in favor signify by saying I I oppose same sign motion carries Mr Kelly thank you Mr chairman uh Commissioners the report Im going to give you regarding our activity is going to enccompass our activity since we last met in February the last two months we didnt have a quorum we did still report out on that but just to make it official and get it into the minutes Im going to give you a cumulative number of of activities since we last met um regarding our tobacco and cannabis inspections and that number will remain the same always because whenever we do a tobacco inspection we always inspect for cannabis whether theyre selling that type of product to these places or not so we conducted 400 of those inspections we conducted 237 alcohol inspections at 43 of the can of the Cannabis inspection places we did identify cannabis product and we gave them what we say is an educational pamphlet we left them information explaining the legality what the current impact of the uh judicial order against us right now or stopping us from taking enforcement action is and Advising these retailers to be mindful that if that changes well be back and be looking to take some enforcement action if they havent made Corrections themselves since uh since we last met officially weve seized nearly 50,000 sticks of OTP specifically 49,682 th000 weve SE 358 packs of unstamped Contraband cigarettes which is a tax loss of $1,343 we see six bottles of distilled Spirits six and six containers of wine and all of these events took place in the in just again always broadly across the state but Ill give you a quick rundown of the counties alagan Anna Rundle Baltimore City Baltimore County Caroline Charles Dorchester Frederick Harford Montgomery Prince Georges Somerset tbit Washington and Worcester counties sounds like Im reading the snow closings uh for each school year or so all of those jurisdictions had some type of violation in them we have weve been able to maintain a good Staffing level and as a result our agents are doing an awful lot of work theres just a lot so its a lot of of these inspections that are taking place and a lot of seizures and where we might have a couple of seizures a week previously we have a couple a day now so its its a lot of work theres a lot of work out there and were trying to meet that that demand uh what Id like to do regarding a legal and legislative update is I think Toms online were not going to were not prepared to do anything today I think perhaps next month will be a better month for us to accumulate all of the data and information of what just happened in the past general assembly session well have a better idea of the laws that the governor either signed or have just passed into law become law by time and so next month well be prepared to give you a more detailed rundown of whats happened legislatively and we can expect to to begin say July 1 say one thing one bill that passed this year was one modernized not modernized but updated the cannabis bill from last year and it did a couple of things it one it lets us write citations for violations instead of having to get statements of charges which is a technical issue but its its just simplifies the process for being able to get these misdemeanor crimes into the Judiciary System so thats a big thing but even bigger for us is it reduced our sta our commissioner staff level now from F from Seven back to five where it was and in doing doing so made our Quorum back to three instead of four which has been difficult for us to meet so we are in better shape for that that was emergency legislation it was signed by the governor at the end of last month so now that thats been signed were back to three and we have a better shot of maintaining our Quorum as necessary uh well jump into HR just very quickly weve been weve been a full staff for quite a while we recently had a couple of uh openings and um were working to make working to fill those very quickly but its only three right now one of them is a section manager which is our our Trade Practices the supervisor the manager over top of our Trade Practices our licensing and our reporting units that position is vacant we will be announcing for that the announcement is done itll be posted within the next week maybe even as soon as tomorrow but definitely within the next week and I expect that were going to have a lot of candidates for that and two of our licensing staff elected to go back to Annapolis to the com controllers office to work and I want to assure everybody it wasnt a hard hard feelings kind of thing its geographically closer one of them lives a couple of minutes away the other lives on the other side of the bridge and this was just too much of a commute when the opportunity was right there so in fact theyre very very good people both of them and they and even though they had a job offer that would have let them go back sooner they elected to stay throughout August because they know its Im Im sorry throughout April because its a very busy time for us renewals take place throughout that month of April for for for the new licensing year which begins May 1st and thank heavens for them they stayed and helped us get through that busy period of time so they left friends nonetheless its a sad to see them go in positions we need to fill we did advertise for those positions already we have a 126 candidates for it so I I sure were going to find at least two excellent candidates out of that number we will be winnowing that down to some of our best qualified candidates and then starting our our interview so hopefully well have those positions filled by the next time we meet I dont know weve talked much and this this isnt on here on our agenda but its just another topic that I think I bring up every now and again we weve been trying to find a lab that is capable of doing testing for cannabis products for us and its been a real struggle eventually the Maryland cannabis Administration they have a lab now its in the process of being set up its in its very early stages theyre not testing and eventually theyll do all this testing for us but in the meantime and were about a year away from that weve got to find somebody to do testing well Rec recently and and thank you to uh Mr Hawk weve recently uh found some resources that the Maryland State Police use one lab is in Pennsylvania that can do vegetable matter like the plant matter for us and one of them is in Frederick County in Maryland that can do the edible products for us and thanks to him pointing Us in the right direction those contracts already exist and it looks like were going to be able a piggy back onto those contracts so hopefully very soon were going to have access to a lab which you know we we are handcuff some and how much enforcement we can do but we still can do some enforcement and weve mentioned before we are especially interested in trying to begin a program of underage sales and no injunction is stopping us from doing that enforcement thats something were really geared toward right now so once we nail these Labs down well begin a pretty robust underage enforcement program and the fiscal year is winding down so uh were keeping track of our budget to make sure that we spend whats been appropriated to us that we do it in a very uh appropriate manner that we do it in in a very um mature manner I guess Im not Im not sure Im using the right words but that we want to make sure were spending it wisely and properly but were were running out as we should be toward the end of the year so Im glad to say that as well Mr chair that would be my report happy to yield back to you well take any questions anybody have any questions from Mr Kelly anybody have any new business theyd like to bring up this time if not Ill take a motion for adjournment a motion for adjournment okay second Motion in a second all those in favor signify by saying I I okay motion carries I look forward to seeing everybody next month thank you have a good month see you next month too.

The 30-day abstinence rates at six months for Fiscal Year 2017 (FY2017) through Fiscal Year 2023 (FY2023) ranged from 22.9% to 29.2%

For the next several years until 1900, cigarette smoking quadrupled, but it remained a niche market with most tobacco being chewed or smoked via a cigar or with a pipe.

Given that Vital Strategies is responsible for regranting most of its funds to other organizations in the tobacco control field, paying themselves almost a quarter of all of the grants they received comes across as, well, lavish