The first crop of medical marijuana is growing on the Lower Shore and may be available to patients in about a month, according to the company that secured the region's lone state license.

“The main thing is this is medicine we’re creating with the clear purpose of alleviating people’s pain and suffering," said Tim McGivern, one of the partners with Shore Natural Rx.

Maryland's medical marijuana program has been slowed by charges of racial and geographic bias in its selection of vendors. Although lawmakers legalized the drug in 2013, it has yet to reach a single patient in the Free State.

Shore Natural hopes to be among the first growers to hit the fledgling market. The Maryland Medical Cannabis Commission approved its license Aug. 28.

More:Where there's smoke: The latest on medical marijuana on the Eastern Shore

Since then, the Worcester County company has been working to become operational, McGivern said.

The first plants have begun taking leaf, but several steps lie ahead, including flowering, harvesting, drying and curing. Afterward, the processed marijuana must undergo testing for quality assurance by a state-selected laboratory, McGivern said.

Typically, the time from "seed to sale" takes 120 days, but he anticipates some delays the first time around as the lab works out kinks on its side.

No medical marijuana growing facility had ever been proposed or reviewed in Worcester before Shore Natural. Still, the company and county planners described the process as quiet and relatively hiccup-free.

SNRX LLC, a firm that shares the same address as Shore Natural, bought a former chicken hatchery building from Perdue in November 2016 for $395,000, according to online state property records.

The 35,000-square-foot building was zoned for industrial uses. Since the growing facility was designated as an agriculture use — and agriculture is automatically allowed in any zoning district — no public hearings were necessary, said Jennifer Keener, Worcester's zoning administrator.

More:Salisbury medical marijuana dispensary gets state license

The company invested more than $2 million renovating what was a concrete shell of a building into a greenhouse, with space set aside for offices, storage and a laboratory, McGivern said.

The complex stands on the west side of Route 113 at Peerless Road in Showell. At first glance, it could pass for a small prison.

A tall, chain-link fence topped by gleaming razor wire surrounds the low-slung building. Security cameras glare down from above. And when a reporter drove past the property on Thursday afternoon, a security guard wearing a purple polo shirt watched the grounds while sitting on a four-wheel ATV.

“It was very suitable to a conversion, and it met all the requirements we were looking for in terms of being converted on a security standpoint to a safe facility and being able to maximize our production," said McGivern. He worked in the medical marijuana business in New Mexico before moving to Maryland.

Shore Natural has no plans to sell the drugs on its own property, he added. It will be made available at third-party dispensaries instead.

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