Via Shutterstock.

In an apparent first for the region, a local marijuana company will be a unionized business.

Bethesda Biomedical has reached an agreement with Local 400 of the United Food & Commercial Workers (UFCW) to cover wages, healthcare benefits, pensions, and working conditions. It will go in effect in January and could eventually cover well more than one hundred workers, UFCW spokesman Jonathan Williams said.

But all of this is contingent on Maryland actually issuing licenses for medical marijuana growers and dispensaries—and Bethesda Biomedical winning one. Although the state passed a program back in 2013, the regulations had to be relaxed in recent years to make it a feasible investment. Under the new rules, 15 companies will be able to grow marijuana and 94 businesses can set up dispensaries, two per senatorial district (not including any growers who also have a dispensary license.) The state formally opened up the applications last month. While Baltimore County has already passed zoning regulations, Anne Arundel is still squabbling over the law.

Although some marijuana activists are skeptical of the timeline, both UFCW and Bethesda Biomedical said they feel “confident the company’s license will be approved by the state before the end of the year.” Bethesda Medical, which was founded this year by the owners of Washington state dispensary Triple C, is looking at “manufacturing sites” in Prince George’s and Montgomery counties as well as a retail space in Takoma Park. Practically speaking, though, they couldn’t begin selling marijuana until next summer at the earliest.

“They were very interested in being responsible corporate partners and being engaged with the community. They reached out to UFCW before even opening shop about coming up with the agreement, which includes high wages and pensions,” Williams said. Local 400 represents about 35,000 members in the mid-Atlantic region in the retail food, health care, department store, food processing, and service industries. The agreement was modeled after a contracted negotiated by UFCW Local 1198 in Minnesota “in an effort to make sure the industry applies the same standards,” Williams said.