Very few towns on the Eastern Shore have been more welcoming to Maryland’s new era of legal cannabis use than Centreville. As one of the first on the Shore to welcome a dispensary and growing facility after cannabis was approved for medical use, it is now the home of one of the largest cannabis processing companies on the Shore, Green Thumb Industries, with over one hundred local employees and a large facility in the town’s industrial park.

Centreville’s early embrace of the cannabis industry has paid off in many ways, including the extraordinary tax revenue it generates for the town.

But as demand has grown for cannabis-related products, Green Thumb has stepped up production, which has led to a noticeable problem for residents; its starting to stink to high heaven.

From Symphony Village, on one side of town, which is near the industrial park, to the Northbrook community on the North end, the smell of cannabis is increasingly in the air. While some residents see this as a minor inconvenience, a growing number are demanding town government action to control this new form of air pollution.

Many of those residents were out in force this week at the Centreville Town Council meeting to voice their opinions on this modern-day problem. It’s safe to say that community tolerance was reaching the breaking point.

The Spy was able to capture some of those sentiments, as well as Green Thumb executives vowing to fix the problem, in an atmosphere suggesting that a solution could be quickly deployed.

And after hearing public comments, the Town Council members agreed to give Green Thumb 90 days to resolve the issue before a legislative action is taken against the company. The issue will be reviewed on the council’s agenda on January 4, 2024.

Green Thumb Comments

Public Comments

Having a title like chief executive officer is an appropriate one for the individual tasked with running a multi-million dollar budget as well as overseeing a vast physical campus but Irma Toce never sees her job through the lens of a traditional business leader. Her decades of experience in leading residential retirement communities had told her well before she took on the CEO role at Londonderry at Tred Avon in 2014 that her job was building a unique sense of place there.

For Irma, that rebuilding started with the staff. With morale suffering from the impact of the 2008 recession and high occupancy rates, that sense of place (and purpose) was the missing ingredient. In fact, she still recalls visiting Londonderry during the interview process and was bewildered that such a beautiful place with such wonder residents was having any problems at all.

And that personal mission has been very much in evidence at Londonderry for almost ten years. With full occupancy, healthy financials, and a culture of authentic community, Irma not only helped steady the ship but clearly had a great time doing it.

The Spy continues with our ongoing series of exit interviews with some of the Mid-Shore’s most talented individuals as they come to the close of long-term impactful leaders of our leading community organizations and businesses, of which Irma is at the top of the list.

This video is approximately five minutes in length. For more information about Londonderry on the Tred Avon please go here.