By Ricardo Fuentes
Baltimore Watchdog Staff Writer
“Cannabis year” is the way a popular Maryland state senator describes the more than two dozen marijuana bills circulating through the 2018 Legislature.
And, state Sen. Robert A. Zirkin, a Democrat who represents District 11 in Baltimore County, is sponsoring two of them. Zirkin chairs the Senate Judicial Proceedings committee, which helped legalize medical marijuana in Maryland five years ago. Medical marijuana is known as cannabis when the substance is used as a medicine. The committee also helped decriminalize possession of small amounts of marijuana.
Now, Zirkin is sponsoring bills that would make it harder for police to bring felony charges based on possession. To be charged with a felony, a person would have to possess 1 ounce, instead of the current 10 grams. The other bill would not allow felony charges of possession with intent to distribute for people found with an ounce or less.
Zirkin said police still are charging people with 8 grams of marijuana as distributors because they had the drug in more than one plastic bag.
“Supporting decriminalizing marijuana in states that have not yet done so” is important to Kate Bell, legislative counsel for the Washington-based Marijuana Policy Project.
“It reduces the number of people — disproportionately people of color — who are brought into the criminal justice system for nothing more than using a substance that is safer than alcohol,” Bell said.
Lawmakers soon will decide if they should put marijuana on a ballot for voters to decide in November. The constitutional amendment would let voters decide whether to replace prohibition with a system of regulated sales and taxation. To pass a constitutional amendment, it must be approved by two-thirds of both the House and the Senate and then by the voters. The Governor may not veto it, officials said.
Some Maryland residents and business owners approve of making marijuana recreational too.
“I do think marijuana should be legal for recreational purposes,” said Yves Gomez, a pharmacist intern in a local drug store. “Criminalization of marijuana disproportionately terrorizes black and brown people. In its decriminalization and legalization for recreational purposes, I think that has to be also taken into consideration when allowing folks to create dispensaries. “
Twenty of the state’s 30 licensed dispensaries are currently open in the state. More are in planning and development, but by law there can be no more than two dispensaries in each of the state’s 47 legislative districts.
Bell said the measures “do not address all of the problems caused by prohibition.” To eliminate all of the problems, she said “we must move sales out of the hands of gangs and cartels, which solve disputes with violence, and into the hands of taxed, regulated businesses.
“Unlike criminals, these businesses can be required to check ID, test and label their products, and refrain from using harmful pesticides, “said Bell of the dispensaries.
If legalization is not passed this election year, Bell said her group supports Zirkin’s bills.
In other measures under consideration, possession and home cultivation of a limited amount of marijuana would be legal for people 21 and over. The bill also would require the state to establish regulations and taxation for a legal cannabis market. Another proposal would limit the ways cannabis may be advertised. Driving while under the influence or consuming marijuana will remain illegal, officials said.