Articles Posted in Maryland Legislature

The 2016 Maryland legislative session is officially heating up, and numerous new criminal law bills are being discussed in the House and the Senate each day. There are a handful of criminal law bills that are slowly advancing, while many others have already received unfavorable reports by the Judiciary and have been withdrawn. But one bill that seems destined for the governor’s desk is a proposal that smoking marijuana in a car officially be declared illegal. Regular readers will remember the ongoing saga where the governor vetoed a necessary marijuana paraphernalia decriminalization bill because is contained no provision allowing officers to stop a car after observing the occupants smoking pot. Giving officers this power may have been totally reasonable, but it had absolutely nothing to do curing the immense confusion in the state’s marijuana policy by decriminalizing paraphernalia. The governor was simply trying to flex is legislative muscle, though luckily the lawmakers in Annapolis overrode the veto. Pot paraphernalia is no longer a crime and now the natural legislative process has brought us a bill that would achieve what the governor stubbornly tried to do through veto power last summer. At the risk of being too harsh on our governor, we’ll give him the benefit of the doubt and suggest that the veto may merely have been a tool to motivate and remind the legislature to make toking in the car a no no.

House Bill 183, which is has moved to the Senate after unanimous approval in the House, will add a provision to the transportation article that already addresses drinking alcohol in a car. This law currently makes it illegal to consume any alcoholic beverage in a car or truck on a public highway regardless of whether the car is parked or moving. If the new bill becomes law it will modify the statute to include smoking or consuming marijuana in a parked or moving automobile on a public highway. Violation of this provision is not currently a criminal offense, but rather a traffic citation punishable by a $500 fine. The proposed bill keeps it that way, as its main utility is giving officers the legal authority to conduct a traffic stop based solely on observing marijuana use. This is exactly what the governor and some elected prosecutors publicly wanted last summer, but prosing new legislation and allowing the process to play out is the right way to achieve it. The Bill will most likely pass unmodified, although there could be some minor changes after the Senate is through with it. And when it hits the governor’s desk you can bet it will be one of the first he signs. Look for smoking pot in a car to be illegal and punishable by a $500 fine to be illegal starting in October of 2016.

We will continue to follow this bill and other criminal law bills at they progress through the legislature. One bill that is of particular interest is House Bill 307, which lowers the maximum penalty for possession of drugs such as cocaine, heroin, and narcotic painkillers from 4 years to 1 year. This is a proposal that is a long time coming considering the changes in marijuana possession policy. A 4-year maximum sentence for simple possession is unnecessarily high, as 1 year in jail is more than enough to deter and punish drug possession.

Last spring we wrote about the illogical decision of our governor to veto a bill that cured a glaring inconsistency from last year’s marijuana decriminalization law. The now famous decriminalization statute failed to address the possession of marijuana paraphernalia, which until today remained a criminal offense despite the fact that possession of the pot smoked with it became a civil infraction. Senate Bill 517 attempted to fix that inconsistency by specifically stating that the drug paraphernalia criminal laws do not apply to marijuana drug paraphernalia. This bill also raised the fines for smoking pot in public and while driving to $1,000, up from $500. But the governor, clearly unhappy that the legislature failed to make smoking in public and while driving a criminal offense, vetoed the bill and thus the paraphernalia inconsistency remained. Those in support of the veto, such as the Baltimore County State’s Attorney, urged the legislature not to override it by invoking the classic “it puts your children at risk” argument. The county prosecutor hypothesized about a Maryland where smoking pot on playgrounds and while driving on the beltway could become commonplace. But the legislature saw through these agenda driven arguments, and did the right thing by overriding the veto.

As a result of today’s Annapolis override small amounts of marijuana plus the plastic bags, glass pipes, or rolling papers used with it are officially decriminalized. Police will still be able to charge public pot smokers with a hefty $1,000 fine, and they will also be able to conduct a traffic stop for the purpose of writing one of these tickets to the ever so scarce non-impaired pot-smoking driver. For now the mudslinging between the governor and some pro cannabis lawmakers will cool down, but this should in no way be considered a truce. The governor and the few socially conservative politicians left in the state will still likely attempt to push laws criminalizing public pot smoking. But these efforts will be met with an increased amount of opposition, as polling shows that the majority of Maryland residents now prefer additional relaxing of state marijuana laws not making them stricter again. Local politicians will be reluctant to focus much attention on making pot laws stricter; especially considering the developing political story on the Eastern Shore where a congressman may have jeopardized his political career by crusading against legalized marijuana in Washington D.C.  This being a story that may warrant a post in the near future.

The Blog will continue to follow new criminal law and marijuana proposals coming out of Annapolis as the legislative session begins to ramp up. In the early stages of the session the topics generating the most attention are the veto overrides, but we do not expect any to be as newsworthy as the paraphernalia veto. Yesterday the house voted to override a veto on a law that gave convicted felons their voting rights back after being released from prison, and a vote to override the governor’s veto of a long overdue criminal forfeiture reform bill will take place sometime in the near future. Readers should expect an article on this issue within the next few weeks.

Frustration is mounting for those awaiting a final verdict on the fate of their medical marijuana grower and distributor licenses. The original timeframe called for the commission to hand out the licenses this coming January, but as we posted a month ago this was optimistic due to the unexpectedly high number of applications. While it was hoped the delay would only last a couple months, officials are now claiming that decisions will not become final until the summer. The minimum six-month delay has all but eliminated the chance of medical marijuana being available to Maryland patients in 2016, and now commission has declined to give an estimated timeframe for pretty much anything regarding the program. This lack of information seems unfair given the strict deadlines and financial burdens all the applicants are facing. One thing we do know is that the typical growing cycle for indoor cannabis is 4-10 months, which means it will take an average of 7 months from the time the first seeds are planted until the product will be ready for distribution.

While adding half a year for production to the commission’s expected summer application timeline means we’re at least a full year away from medical marijuana, there still may be more unforeseen obstacles. A couple months back the Anne Arundel County government was in the news after the executive threatened to ban local medical marijuana operations. This dispute was later settled by the county council, but now Calvert County has joined as another locality that may spar with the state over marijuana policy; its board recently voted in favor of requesting state lawmakers allow certain localities to ban medical cannabis. Calvert County officials cite concerns that their government employees are at risk federal of prosecution as long as marijuana is an illegal controlled substance under federal law. This is the same tired argument that anti-marijuana activists have been relying on for years, and is completely disingenuous. While it is technically possible that this scenario could take place, it’s not going to happen and anyone who believes it could happen is simply using it as a ploy. There is simply no chance the DEA would is start arresting local government employees for working on some aspect of state sponsored medical marijuana. The current administration has already vowed to stay away from state sponsored marijuana, and even the most socially conservative presidential candidate wouldn’t get involved.

The anti medical marijuana localities will eventually lose out to the state legislature, but their pushback could cause further delays for the program. If any of these quarrels end up in court there could be months of litigation while ailing patients continue to suffer and bona fide investors continue to hemorrhage money. Architects of the medical cannabis program want the state to remain unified on this issue, with grow operations and dispensaries spread evenly across Maryland. Let’s hope this can be accomplished by the start of 2017. The Blog will continue to follow this issue as always, and we’ll post a follow up article in the near future to keep our readers updated.

As close as we are to fully functioning statewide medical marijuana, it still seems at times as if the day may never come. The Governor approved the General Assembly’s medical marijuana proposal almost six months ago, and applications for grower and distributor licenses are on the brink of being processed. But now local politicians are attempting to disrupt the progress of state lawmakers and appointed department of health commission members, while at the same time ignoring the will of a large majority of Maryland citizens. This local power wielding started a couple months ago when a Baltimore County politician proposed increased zoning restrictions on dispensaries and grow houses. The Baltimore County Council passed these regulations earlier this month, but their utility was challenged by the County Executive and state lawmakers from the area. Both described the increased local regulations as unnecessary because of the comprehensive nature of the state regulations, which already address the location of grow houses and dispensaries. While the increased zoning regulations in Baltimore County might be entirely an act of grandstanding for local politicians, at least they will not severely hinder the progress of the state medical marijuana program. The same cannot be said for an Anne Arundel County politician’s proposal.

The Anne Arundel County Executive is set to introduce legislation tonight at a council meeting that would prohibit the sale and production of marijuana anywhere within county lines. This legislation would be a slap in the face to state lawmakers, the governor, and the majority of the people of the state of Maryland who all want a statewide functioning medical marijuana program. The executive’s reasons for moving to ban medical marijuana from Anne Arundel are the same old rhetorical outdated nonsense. He rants about marijuana being a gateway drug, and potentially causing economic stagnation and increased criminal activity. These arguments are tired and ill informed, and none have any relevance to the issue of marijuana for medical use. The executive wants to deny patients the ability to obtain something that has been proven without a doubt to make them feel better because he, and others of his generation and background have a personal vendetta against marijuana and its culture. Thankfully the legislation is likely to fail in the county council, but we will update the Blog when an actual vote occurs.

The Anne Arundel politician also sites the fact that medical marijuana will simply lead to legalized recreational marijuana, and he will not stand for that in “his” county. Again he offers not one logical and factually supported argument of why recreational marijuana would contribute to increased crime or economic stagnation. If the executive is worried about increased criminal activity from legalized drug use it really doesn’t show, as his very own Annapolis is lined with more bars per square mile than almost every other city in Maryland. Alcohol is celebrated and imbedded in the culture of our waterfront capital city (and every other city and town in the country), and yet empirical data shows is causes more death, illness, and violence than all other drugs combined. It’s legal because people enjoy it and it generates billions of dollars in commerce. Why does everything have to be good for you in order to be legal, and since when does the government know what is good for you anyway? One day marijuana will be legal as well for the same reasons, because people enjoy it and want to do it. Yet unlike alcohol it will not bring with it thousands of documented deaths per year, and it will not be a contributing factor to an even greater number of incidents of violence.

Each step toward a viable medical marijuana program brings with it numerous unforeseen obstacles, and it’s been that way in Maryland since 2013. Two years ago lawmakers in Annapolis passed the state’s first medical marijuana program only to see zero institutions take them up on the offer. The legislature thought it was being progressive back in 2013, but the strict program regulations proved otherwise. The following year the General Assembly went back to square one with their sights now set on developing a program that was actually feasible. The regulations were again modified this past year, but once again it was way too early to celebrate. Lawmakers reached an agreement on the number of grower and distributors licenses, but there was still much to be determined about how the application and selection process would evolve. As it stands now the regulations are still not finalized, and probably wont be until next month. No applications are currently being accepted, and all told we’re now looking at late 2016 for the state’s first functioning marijuana dispensaries to open shop. Even this timeframe may still be slightly optimistic, as local politicians may now attempt to restrict the location of the 94 licensed dispensaries.

Generally speaking, our state laws are drafted and voted upon by either senators or representatives, and then approved by the General Assembly and the Governor. Local governments also are free to enact their own laws, provided they don’t interfere with state or federal laws, but local ordinances are less visible as a means to govern the public in Maryland. In the criminal law field local ordinances are few and far between as the state criminal code is thorough. The few local ordinances with criminal consequences we see are typically open container laws (such as in Ocean City), litter laws, and noise violations. In most jurisdictions the most important duty of local politicians is to enact zoning regulations. This is not to say their job isn’t important, as zoning decisions often have millions of dollars at stake.

Local politicians have the ability to become involved in the medical marijuana process if they decide to exercise their zoning authority to restrict the location of growers and dispensaries. In theory a county council member could enact zoning regulations that would completely ban medical marijuana, thus effectively making the state program non-existent in a particular area. This is exactly what may be happening in Baltimore County, as a member of the county council has indicated a desire to introduce restrictive zoning requirements for medical marijuana dispensaries. These restrictions include being 1,000 feet from schools, day care centers, parks, places of worship, and libraries. The proposal would also keep dispensaries in the county at least 2,500 feet away from each other. State politicians, such as senator Zirkin, have taken exception to this type of local proposal, stating it would in essence thwart the state legislature’s attempt to make medical marijuana available to patients in need. Zirkin explained that dispensary zoning regulations should be no more restrictive than those placed on pharmacies, which dispense far more addictive and powerful drugs than pot. The Baltimore County Executive agrees, stating that there is no need for new medical marijuana local zoning laws.

Toward the end of the 2015 legislative session the General Assembly convincingly passed a modification of the marijuana decriminalization law. The modification served to cure an inherent defect in the 2014 decriminalization law by removing the possession of marijuana paraphernalia from the catalog of CDS criminal offenses. It was a logical and necessary fix to the ambiguous situation created by the 2014 law, which punished the possession of pot only by a civil fine, yet still punished possession of the device used to ingest the pot with criminal sanctions. This modification was expected to take effect in October of this year, thus ending the ambiguity and giving law enforcement and prosecutors more time to deal with actual issues of public safety. The only hurdle was an approval from our recently sworn governor, which at the time seemed like a forgone conclusion. But this past week Hogan flexed his socially conservative muscle and vetoed the bill, baffling some lawmakers and angering marijuana reform advocates all over the country. So for at least another year, the only thing criminal about smoking a joint Maryland is the rolling paper that keeps it together.
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