Maryland legislators drew criticism for the rollout of the state’s medical marijuana industry, which awarded no licenses to Black business owners.
So as they undertook plans this year for legalizing recreational marijuana, they struggled — not just with expanding opportunities for those shut out of the lucrative industry but with the responsibility many felt to begin unwinding decades of failed U.S. drug policies.
Behind the scenes and on the floor, debate centered on how to balance shutting down an illegal market to create a new state-sanctioned one while addressing the toll of the war on drugs — such as Black people being arrested at 3.64 times the rate of White people for having marijuana, even though they use it at similar rates, as an American Civil Liberties Union review of charges levied between 2010 and 2018 found.
Critics say the General Assembly’s plan, which sends to the voters the question of legalizing marijuana and a set of rules that would take effect if the referendum measure passes, is incremental and falls short of a transformational change not only within reach but already achieved in other states.
“It will do little to nothing to prevent and reduce the racial disparities and arrests of marijuana possession, and that’s because of the way the laws are enforced and who is targeted,” said Yanet Amanuel, public policy advocate at the ACLU of Maryland. Read more at The Washington Post.
Photo: A cannabis plant in 2019 at the cultivation company Culta’s farm in Cambridge, Md. (Jahi Chikwendiu/The Washington Post)
