Maryland’s top marijuana regulatory agency is poised to get a new leader, pending confirmation by the state legislature, the state’s governor announced on Wednesday.

Tabatha Robinson, executive deputy director of economic development for the New York Office of Cannabis Management, will take over the Maryland Cannabis Administration post effective Feb. 19, Gov. Wes Moore announced.

Robinson is filling a job left open by the departure last month of Director Will Tilburg, Moore said in a press release. She also had been the acting chief equity officer at the New York OCM.

“Under Tabatha’s steady leadership, Maryland will continue to build out a thriving cannabis market that sets the standard for the rest of the country,” Moore said in the announcement, which focused on Robinson’s social equity work in New York.

Robinson called Maryland’s cannabis industry a “national model” and a “testament to prioritizing product safety for consumers and promoting social equity market-wide.”

The Maryland marijuana market, which launched in 2023, reached more than $1 billion in sales over last summer, and more companies – led by social equity entrepreneurs who were harmed by the war on drugs and cannabis prohibition – are poised to join the market in coming months.

Los Angeles-based Ispire Technology (Nasdaq: ISPR) will repurchase up to $10 million of its issued shares over the next two years.

The cannabis vaping hardware manufacturer will execute the buybacks through various means including open market transactions, accelerated share programs and privately negotiated deals, according to the company Wednesday.

“This move reflects confidence in the company’s growth and strategic investments while leveraging margin expansion to return capital to shareholders,” a spokesperson told Green Market Report in an email.

The timing and scope of repurchases will be determined by Ispire’s board “based on its evaluation of market conditions, share price, legal requirements and other factors.” The program can be suspended or modified at any time, the company said.

“Given the current capital markets environment, we believe starting our share repurchase program now is an excellent opportunity to buy our common stock at a significant discount to their intrinsic value and represents an attractive investment to potential shareholders,” Michael Wang, co-CEO of Ispire, said in a statement.

The firm operates globally through its Aspire brand of e-cigarettes, though that brand excludes the United States, China and Russia from its distribution network.

In the cannabis sector, Ispire has been pushing to expand its footprint beyond its established markets in the U.S., Europe and South Africa. The company recently began customer engagement initiatives in Canada and Latin America, according to the announcement.

Vermont cannabis regulators are recommending several new business license categories while opposing additional product restrictions, according to a legislative report released last week.

The state’s Cannabis Control Board advised lawmakers to create three new license types:

• Delivery services
• Temporary event sales
• On-site consumption establishments

The board also recommended against imposing minimum CBD requirements in cannabis products or additional regulations on paraphernalia sales.

For delivery services, the board envisions stand-alone businesses that would contract with multiple retailers to fulfill orders. The recommendations suggest that those licensees could aggregate deliveries within board-set product limits and use vehicles that are unmarked and secure. The board plans an exclusivity period for social equity applicants for the license category.

“Products and cash in vehicle would be limited and secured during transport,” the report noted, adding that “all purchase limits and ID checks would apply to these transactions.”

The temporary event program would permit cannabis sales and consumption at approved locations in municipalities that have opted into retail sales. Events would require transportation plans and age-restricted areas.

Regarding on-site consumption, the board proposed “café style locations” that could sell cannabis for immediate use, though alcohol sales would be prohibited. Such establishments would need adequate ventilation systems or outdoor screened areas.

The board opposed setting minimum CBD levels in cannabis products, citing insufficient scientific evidence. After reviewing available studies, regulators determined there was not enough data to support imposing such requirements or ratios to prevent cannabis-induced psychosis.

“Prohibiting or limiting products that are popular with consumers without evidence that they are particularly harmful will keep more sales in the illicit market where products are unregulated, untaxed, and not subject to quality control testing,” the report stated.

The state currently licenses 15 tiers of cultivators, three levels of manufacturers, and various retail and testing operations.

Both the delivery and consumption proposals would require legislative approval before implementation. The board recommended rolling out these programs gradually to assess their success before wider deployment. Vermont’s 2025 legislative season kicked off this month, with the session to end in May.

While officials initially forecast $86 million in sales by June 2024, the end of that fiscal year, the market had already reached $128 million by then, according to James Pepper, chair of the Vermont Cannabis Control Board.