Maryland Legislature Begins Work on Legalizing Cannabis |

A legislative body convened to look into the legalization of recreational marijuana in Maryland began work last Wednesday, putting forward plans to draft a referendum vote for next year’s general election. The task force of the Maryland House of Representatives working group of 10 is to create a plan to legalize cannabis for adult use while addressing the damage caused and continued by the failed war on drugs.

“This working group will create the legal framework needed to fully implement marijuana legalization and learn from the mistakes other states have made before us,” said Delegate Luke H. Clippinger, Chair of the House Cannabis Workgroup. at the virtual meeting on Wednesday of the panel.

The bipartisan legislative group was appointed by House Speaker Adrienne Jones in July. She then said she would like a referendum on legalizing cannabis on the ballot for the November 2022 election.

“While I have personal concerns about encouraging marijuana use, especially among children and young adults, the different effects on the criminal justice system make me believe that voters should have a say in the future of legalization,” Jones said at the time. “The House of Representatives will pass a law early next year to put this question to the electorate, but we must start now to look into the necessary changes to the state law.”

The group will examine issues related to the legalization of cannabis, including the licensing and oversight of companies that grow, process, and sell recreational marijuana. The panel also plans to discuss overturning previous marijuana convictions, social justice measures to combat the harm caused by the ban, and ways to promote fair representation in the cannabis industry.

“The speaker made it clear to me that we are going to do this with a view to justice and taking into account the black and brown neighborhoods and businesses that have historically been influenced by cannabis use,” said Clippinger.

Ensure racial justice in legalization

The working group heard from John Hudak, Associate Director of the Center for Effective Public Management and Senior Fellow in Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution, who has studied cannabis policy. He said that fully addressing the harms of the marijuana ban was a complex issue, noting that cannabis policy has always been discriminatory.

“It wasn’t a coincidence; it was on purpose, ”said Hudak.

Hudak cited data from the ACLU showing that despite similar use rates in the two groups, blacks in Maryland are more than twice as likely to be arrested as whites for a cannabis-related crime.

“The war on drugs, and the war on cannabis in particular, is at the heart of a system’s ability to create, through law enforcement, especially of people of color, the kinds of racial inequalities that we see institutionalized throughout the United States,” he said.

Citing Illinois, New York, and New Jersey as examples of cannabis legalization plans designed with racial justice in mind, Hudak recommended a three-pronged reform approach, which he described as triple-pronged. Hudak noted that in addition to eradicating low-level cannabis offenses and ensuring inclusive property in the industry, these states also included investments in social infrastructure including education, childcare and vocational training as part of their legalization plans.

“This is another important step in reversing the effects of the drug war and recognizing that decades of laws were not only discriminatory but also devastating to many people and the communities they came from,” Hudak said.

However, Hudak also noted that legalizing cannabis alone is not enough to end marijuana arrests, and said broader reforms are also needed.

“Part of this conversation must also include work within law enforcement, work in policing, work in community police – work on issues that I know this legislature is working on in the context of police reform in a variety of areas through drug policy “He said.” But there is no better place to have this conversation than the conversation about legalizing marijuana. “