The leaders of the Maryland General Assembly’s Marijuana Legalization Workgroup have indicated that they will not be endorsing legislation legalizing recreational use of marijuana for the upcoming 2020 session.
Rather, the group will continue to study and work through the remaining legalization issues for a possible path forward in Maryland.
The Baltimore Sun reports:
“I think the consensus is: We are not recommending legislation this session to legalize adult use,” said Del. Kathleen Dumais, who co-chairs a bipartisan work group of delegates and senators that’s been studying marijuana. “We are still in the investigative mode.”
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But after studying the many factors involved — from setting tax rates to identifying drugged driving to expunging old convictions — the work group found it still has more work to do. Without an endorsement from the work group, legalization is unlikely to move forward in the 2020 General Assembly session.
The article also quotes fellow Delegate David Moon who opines that the legislation could be addressed in 2021 which gives an additional year to work through the remaining issues. It also notes, recreational use advocates such as the Marijuana Policy Project plan to continue to push for 2020 legislation while groups such as Maryland Marijuana Justice are proponents for raising the current decriminalized possession threshold to more than 10 grams to deal with some of the criminal justice-related issues in the meantime.
For more information:
Legalizing recreational marijuana in Maryland not likely in 2020: ‘We are still in the investigative mode’ (The Baltimore Sun)
Learn more about adult-use cannabis and its potential impacts on local governments at the MACo Winter Conference session closing session, “Cannabis Conundrum: Looking Toward Legalization” on Friday, December 6 at 11 am.
The 2019 MACo Winter Conference, “Building for the Future,” will be held on December 4-6, 2019, at the Hyatt Regency Chesapeake Bay Hotel in Cambridge, Maryland.
Learn more about MACo’s Winter Conference:
