Authorizing usage of marijuana for recreational usage will be getting significant attention this week in Maryland legislature since the leading counselors are backing to permit adults to smoke pot legally and they think that there are slight chances of it becoming a possibility this year.
The advocates and lawmakers of Maryland are pushing to approve the sale of marijuana for recreational use. They believe that a strong debate on the topic will help in placing themselves in a decent position in the next year’s executive session. They plan to give their all-out push during the next year’s Democratic General Assembly asking either to legalize the drug for recreational usage or endorse the issue to general people (voters) as a question on their ballot.
The legislature is also struggling with numerous bills related to Maryland’s Medical Marijuana Program; the program has seen itself become a series of controversies over the choice that the state regulators will be imposing in selecting and rejecting companies that will deal with selling and producing marijuana.
In 2016, the Maryland Medical Cannabis Commission granted fifteen provisional licenses to grow marijuana, fifteen licenses to further process medical cannabis, and further 102 approvals to firms competing to sell cannabis. The selected organizations are pending final inspection, and then they can kick-start selling the product by the end of summer.
However, Maryland’s Legislative Black Caucus exasperated as no pre-approved company owned by minority or African-American race is selected for growing marijuana. The State Senator and a Guarantor of Black Caucus Legislation said, “On a nation that was built on the backs of black folks, I just don’t see how we can, as a progressive state, stand here and tolerate the current conditions.”
The regulators of marijuana in Maryland said that when they granted licenses, they wanted to follow the provisions stated in the 2014 medical marijuana legalization law that encourages ethnically diverse and racial communities as marijuana growers. But they were restricted to follow the regulations as they got a letter from the office of Attorney General, proposing that racial inclinations would be unconstitutional, a study demonstrated the inequalities to legitimize the move.
During the hearing, the lawmakers broiled the members of marijuana commission as to why they didn’t try harder to find any other approaches for considering racial diversity into action.
The fights over the medical marijuana program will proceed; the committees will be fighting to make it legal for recreational usage. A panel is also proposing to imply taxes on marijuana similar to alcohol.
Some of them also believe that adding cannabis legalization to the next year’s ballot will help out young and other determined voters when the popular Republican Gov. Larry Hogan is up for re-election.
