Wicomico County, MD Cannabis Regulations: Dispensary Zoning (2026)

1 by Bill No. 2023-16 in 2023 and amended by Bill No. 2024-07 in 2024, draw a hard line between two kinds of operations. Subsection B bans a cannabis on-site consumption establishment, meaning a location where customers use cannabis products on the premises, everywhere in unincorporated Wicomico County; there is no district, permit or special exception that authorizes one. Subsection C treats every other type of cannabis business differently: it is prohibited unless it is enumerated as a permitted use in the county's Table of Permitted Uses at § 225-67, so whether a grower, processor, dispensary or other licensed operator may locate on a given parcel depends first on that district-by-district use table before the separation distances in Subsection A are even considered.

Subsection C also carves out licensed outdoor growers: a grower cultivating cannabis exclusively outdoors on land zoned only for agricultural use must comply with state licensing law and the same separation requirements set out in Subsection A, rather than being treated as an ordinary permitted-use question. Because the permitted-use table and the buffer distances apply together, a parcel can fail on either ground: a use the table does not list for that district is barred regardless of distance, and a use the table allows can still be barred if it sits inside a school, park, residential or inter-business buffer.

Anyone proposing a cannabis operation in the unincorporated county needs to confirm both the permitted-use status for the specific district and the four separation distances with the Department of Planning, Zoning and Community Development before applying for a state license.