---
type: "Bill"
title: "Agriculture - Industrial Hemp Pilot Program - Establishment"
description: "Agriculture - Industrial Hemp Pilot Program - Establishment"
jurisdiction: "us/states/md"
legislature: "Maryland General Assembly"
session: "2018"
identifier: "HB 698"
citation: "Maryland HB 698 (2018)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Agriculture", "Agriculture", "Department of", "Agriculture", "Cannabis", "Commerce and Business", "Higher Education", "Industry and Technology", "Inspections", "Licenses", "Records", "Registration", "Retail Sales", "Rules and Regulations"]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Fraser-Hidalgo"]
version_count: 1
action_count: 13
vote_count: 2
first_action: "2018-01-31"
last_action: "2018-05-08"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/af2b8b90-94cd-411f-a483-0c0cea097c79"
source_url: "http://mgaleg.maryland.gov/webmga/frmMain.aspx?id=HB698&stab=01&pid=billpage&tab=subject3&ys=2018rs"
source_hash: "08c7c9280ed94bf22875cadc71ffcbcedc7b9eb1225610f0f0ecb71c2f6aeea5"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-md"]
---

# Maryland HB 698 (2018) — Agriculture - Industrial Hemp Pilot Program - Establishment

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **Bill Text** (committee substitute) — [source](http://mgaleg.maryland.gov/2018RS/bills/hb/hb0698f.pdf)

## Votes

- On Third Reading — **136–1** (pass) · lower
- On Third Reading — **46–0** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- Fraser-Hidalgo — primary (person)
- Anderton — cosponsor (person)
- Barve — cosponsor (person)
- Beidle — cosponsor (person)
- Carr — cosponsor (person)
- Cassilly — cosponsor (person)
- Clark — cosponsor (person)
- Flanagan — cosponsor (person)
- Folden — cosponsor (person)
- Frush — cosponsor (person)
- Gilchrist — cosponsor (person)
- Healey — cosponsor (person)
- Holmes — cosponsor (person)
- Jacobs — cosponsor (person)
- Jalisi — cosponsor (person)
- Knotts — cosponsor (person)
- Lafferty — cosponsor (person)
- McCray — cosponsor (person)
- McMillan — cosponsor (person)
- Morhaim — cosponsor (person)
- Otto — cosponsor (person)
- R. Lewis — cosponsor (person)
- Robinson — cosponsor (person)
- Rosenberg — cosponsor (person)
- Wivell — cosponsor (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2018-01-31** First Reading Environment and Transportation `referral-committee`
- **2018-01-31** Hearing 2/14 at 1:00 p.m.
- **2018-02-26** Favorable with Amendments Report by Environment and Transportation `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2018-02-27** Favorable with Amendments {680813/1 Report Adopted `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2018-02-27** Second Reading Passed with Amendments
- **2018-03-01** Third Reading Passed (136-1) `passage`
- **2018-03-02** First Reading Education, Health, and Environmental Affairs `referral-committee`
- **2018-04-02** Favorable Report by Education, Health, and Environmental Affairs `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2018-04-03** Favorable Report Adopted `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2018-04-03** Second Reading Passed
- **2018-04-04** Third Reading Passed (46-0) `passage`
- **2018-04-05** Returned Passed
- **2018-05-08** Approved by the Governor - Chapter 475 `executive-signature`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/af2b8b90-94cd-411f-a483-0c0cea097c79`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Maryland legislature records).