Maryland lawmakers have passed legislation to provide legal protections for veterinarians who recommend medical marijuana to animals, sending the legislation to the governor’s desk.
The House of Delegates approved one version of the measure in a unanimous 137-0 vote on Tuesday, weeks after the Senate cleared it by a tally of 45-0. And on Wednesday, the Senate adopted the companion measure 43-0 after it passed the House 136-0 in February.
SB 54 from Sen. Clarence Lam (D) and HB 452 from Del. Michele Guyton (D) will now go before Gov. Wes Moore (D), who can sign or veto the bills or allow them to take effect without his signature.
The legislation would make it so the State Board of Veterinary Medical Examiners could not “suspend or revoke a license, reprimand or censure a licensee, or place a licensee on probation solely on the basis of the licensee discussing or recommending the use of cannabis…or a product that contains cannabidiol on an animal for potential therapeutic effect or health supplementation purposes.”
If enacted into law, the reform would take effect on October 1.
At the Senate bill’s hearing before the Education, Energy, and the Environment Committee in February, Lam said the proposal came about from conversations he had with veterinarians.
“I’d heard from some vets who were concerned, because they had heard from animal owners or pet owners that some of their pets and animals were experiencing things like cancer,” he said, “and their veterinarians were not able to even discuss the options for cannabis use for those animals to be able to alleviate alleviate their pain and suffering for those animals, even if the animal owner requested it.”
The lawmaker said a letter about the issue sent by the State Board of Veterinary Medical Examiners a few years ago “has given a lot of caution to veterinarians to even talk about whether cannabis might be helpful for an animal.”
The legislation now heading to the governor’s desk, Lam argued, will help by “setting a baseline level of protection to ensure that veterinarians are able to answer their clients’ or customers’ questions and provide evidence-based information about the use of cannabis and CBD products for pets who may need them.”
Matthew Weeman of the Maryland Veterinary Medical Association told the committee that the bill will “reinforce the veterinary client patient relationship and allow us to have a discussion with our clientele.”
“This is a topic that comes up frequently, and in small animal medicine, in particular…CBD products are available over the counter,” he said. “Consumers are taking those in. They’re giving them to their pets, and they come to us with questions, and most of us feel a little bit hamstrung and that we try to keep up on this, but we can’t discuss it with them, knowing that [state officials] could take punitive action against our license if we do that.”
The legislation, Weeman said, “removes a layer of ambiguity at the state level and helps us to just reinforce that communication so that we can keep pets safe and clients informed of the questions that they’re bringing to us every day.”
Meanwhile, Maryland lawmakers are also advancing legislation this session to protect firefighters and rescue workers from being penalized over their lawful use of medical marijuana off the job.
They also recently sent the governor a bill to extend a psychedelics task force through the end of 2027, charging it with developing updated recommendations on expanding therapeutic access to the novel substances and potentially creating a regulatory framework for broader legalization.
Marijuana Moment is made possible with support from readers. If you rely on our cannabis advocacy journalism to stay informed, please consider a monthly Patreon pledge.
