WASHINGTON (AP) - A former chief of the U.S. Capitol Police says he's comfortable in his new role as security chief for one of the nation's leading medical marijuana growers.
The Washington Post reports that after 46 years in law enforcement, Terrance Gainer now protects cannabis instead of confiscating it.
He heads security operations for Chicago-based Green Thumb Industries, one of the companies vying for a license to grow medical marijuana in Maryland. The company has proposed a growing facility near the western Maryland city of Hagerstown.
"This wasn't something I thought I'd be doing late in my career," said Gainer, 68. "But I did my homework on medical marijuana, and I said, 'If elected officials decided to legalize these (operations), then I know how to secure them.'
Gainer was director of the Illinois State Police before moving to Washington in 1998. He was second-in-command to the Metropolitan Police Department before becoming chief of the U.S. Capitol Police in 2002. He served as sergeant-at-arms of the U.S. Senate from 2007 until last year.
Maryland passed a law in 2013 allowing medical cannabis, but a dispute over which entities could grow and sell it delayed the launch of operations until 2016. Regulations allow for 94 dispensaries, two per state Senate district, and 15 facilities to grow cannabis plants.
Regulators have received nearly 900 applications from prospective growers, processors and sellers of medical marijuana - including 102 requests to grow marijuana. A state commission is reviewing the applications and expects to start issuing licenses sometime in 2016.
Gainer lives in Annapolis, where he runs a security-consulting business. He said he heard about opportunities in cannabis security from old associates, including Robert White, a former D.C. deputy police chief who is now police chief in Denver, where recreational pot is legal.
Eventually, Gainer got a call from Mike McClain, an old college friend and former Illinois state legislator. McClain had helped Green Thumb launch in Chicago, and he suggested Gainer work with it to develop security measures.
"It became pretty clear to me that sophisticated people were involved with GTI and that they had a medical community behind them," Gainer said.
Gainer said he has never used marijuana and doesn't have a prescription for it, but he is comfortable with the concept.
"I think medical cannabis has some wonderful benefits," he said. "And I've talked to family members where it has made a difference in their lives."
Green Thumb has applied for a license to build an indoor cultivation facility and grow marijuana on the site it purchased in Hagerstown, about 70 miles northwest of the nation's capital. The company says it could build the 75,000-square-foot facility on the city's rural outskirts and begin growing within six months of getting a license.
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