When Darryl Hill applied for a cannabis dispensary license in Maryland, he did not look toward Baltimore or the Washington suburbs. He chose Cambridge, and for a good reason.
Dorchester County has long ranked among the state’s lower-income jurisdictions, with fewer large private employers and slower commercial growth than many parts of central Maryland. Hill said that reality was not a drawback, but the point: to establish a new durable business in a town that has long struggled with economic headwinds.
“I picked Cambridge purposely for the retail license because of the low income elements,” Hill said. “As one of the lower income counties in the state, new jobs and income streams were important. So I picked it for that reason, to boost the local economy.”
Seven years later, Sunburst Pharm employs 24 people at the dispensary located in a converted 7-Eleven building on Meteor Avenue, and he has become a steady taxpayer and Chamber of Commerce member in a town that continues to court private investment. Hill speaks about payroll before profit.
“All our hires are local people,” he said. “Most live right here, nearby.”
Hill, 82, had already lived a remarkable life before becoming a cannabis entrepreneur in his seventies. In the early 1960s, he helped break the color barrier in college football as the first Black player to compete on scholarship at the University of Maryland.
Hill later built a long career in minority business development. Over ten years his organizations helped 2,500 minority-owned businesses with technical assistance, marketing and financing. He launched the first publicly owned Minority Enterprise Small Business Investment Company, and was appointed by President Richard Nixon as co-chairman of the National Minority Purchasing Council.
He later took his talents overseas, owned timber businesses from Siberia to Brazil, and a paper cardboard packaging concern in China among many varied accomplishments.
Hill was a trailblazer in cannabis as well. “I was one of the first minorities to get in this business in Maryland,” he said. He carried over the credo of his old career to the new one: “Entrepreneurship is key. You just can’t be employees.”
When Maryland legalized medical cannabis and opened a competitive licensing process, Hill was encouraged to bid on three types of licenses. He won the retail permit. At the time, he said, only a handful of minority applicants were successful.
On the cusp of its seventh anniversary, the day-to-day running of Sunburst falls largely to General Manager Jake Fessler, who came to Cambridge after managing one of Hill’s dispensaries in California. He arrived as Maryland launched adult-use sales in July 2023, a shift that expanded the customer base but did not fundamentally change who walks through the door.
“Our average age is about 40 to 42,” Fessler said. “This particular store here in Cambridge is still very much geared toward medical sales.”
About 40 percent of sales remain medical, he said. Customers frequently ask about sleep problems, arthritis, muscle pain, stress and anxiety.
“Sleep is a big, big one,” Fessler said. “And arthritis. We have fishermen like watermen out here, farmers and people working physically demanding jobs. They’re looking for relief.”
For other customers, cannabis has replaced alcohol as a way to unwind.
“For some people, it’s a safer way to wind down throughout the day,” Fessler said. “You feel fine the next morning.”
Hill is more direct in the comparison.
“Alcohol destroys your health,” he said. “Cannabis may not always improve it, but it doesn’t harm you in the same way.”
Both men emphasize that the difference between the legal market and the old street market is quality control and regulation. Every product sold at Sunburst must be grown or processed in Maryland and tested before reaching the sales floor.
“The compliance in this state is very intense,” Fessler said. “Pesticide, fungicide, mold testing. It’s all done at the cultivation level before we ever see it.”
Hill added that even routine waste, like discarded trimmings, is tightly controlled.
“We cannot throw it out in the dumpster,” he said. “We have to take it to a special waste disposal.”
Employees act as de facto pharmacists and custodians of the products they sell, obliged to complete Responsible Vendor Training that covers product knowledge, safety procedures and customer communication. Each night, all inventory is secured in a locked vault.
On the floor, their expertise immediately shows up IN conversation with customers. Melissa Mazaracchia, who has worked the floor at Sunburst since its opening, said most customers arrive with specific concerns.
“Usually they’ll come in and say, ‘Hey, my back hurts all the time,’ or ‘I’ve got headaches,’” she said. “And we’ll ask, ‘When are you going to be using it? During the day? At night? What are you trying to solve?’ We want to give them an option that is right for their needs, in the most sensible format.”
These days, the traditional, smokable format is known as flower, but there are also liquid “vape” pens, edibles, infused beverages, salves, and more.
Mazaracchia sees two types of customers, she said, those who simply want THC and those looking for guidance.
“And then you have the person who’s genuinely interested in learning about the product and wants something that will help them,” she said.
Her belief in cannabis as medicine is personal. During her first year at Sunburst, her husband, Jon, was diagnosed with colon cancer. Cannabis became part of his treatment routine.
“I saw how it improved his appetite, mood, and overall just well-being,” she said. “It made him a much happier person, much calmer. It relieved his pain, helped his anxiety about undergoing treatment. It made things so much better.”
Jon fought the disease for three and a half years before Melissa lost him to the disease. She believes cannabis “definitely” improved his quality of life during that time.
As more licenses are expected to bring additional dispensaries to the Eastern Shore, Sunburst is expanding its Cambridge location with a drive-thru and a larger storage vault. Hill said the strategy is simple: focus on service, stay compliant and remain involved locally.
“We will focus on our community and provide as much service and support as we possibly can,” he said.
Today, Sunburst Pharm and legal cannabis is no longer an experiment. It is a locally staffed business, run by a pioneering owner and a seasoned manager, operating under strict state rules and drawing customers who are seeking relief, not spectacle. An upstanding business.
“We’re here,” Hill said. “We’re part of the community.”