In 2022, Maryland voters overwhelmingly approved the recreational legalization of cannabis in Maryland. Now, the General Assembly is debating and refining legislation to create this new market, while trying to provide equity and fairness by passing a cannabis bill to legalize adult use, establish the sales tax rate, and set the standards for a new market in the state.
Senate President Bill Ferguson (D) believes that Maryland’s legalization effort can be a national model and Democratic leaders, including Charles County Democrat C.T. Wilson, who heads the Economic Matters Committee, seek to undermine the black market.
“We’re not here to get Marylanders high, we’re not here to make money,” said Wilson in early February when the first details of the legislation dropped. “We’re here to make it safer in the streets so people aren’t dying and getting arrested.”
On July 1, recreational cannabis will be legal in Maryland. Marylanders will be able to carry up to 1.5 ounces of cannabis while facing a fine of $250, rather than a jail sentence.
Marylanders will consume 1.8 million pounds of marijuana a year, according to a recent study from Cannabis Public Policy Consulting, and the business opportunities, tax revenues, and health impacts of cannabis are all being considered.
The proposed sales tax will be 9% following Senate amendments, and affords recreational marijuana licenses for 75 growers, 100 processors and 300 dispensaries. The bill will also create more micro-licenses for small, boutique enterprises that operate under different rules and allow for 15 on-site consumption licenses and 10 incubator space licenses.
When medical cannabis was legalized in Maryland, all of the licenses went to white-owned companies. Attempts to improve business equity largely repeated past mistakes and resulted in Delegate Cheryl Glenn (D) resigning from the House of Delegates.
Legislative leaders like Wilson and Atterbeary, along with cannabis advocates, have emphasized that the equity stake is a key part of this legislation. A provision of this bill is requiring medical cannabis licenses to pay between $100,000 to $2 million to convert to recreational licenses, which they can pay in installments over 18 months.
“Typically when talking cannabis and equity, the conversation is mostly centered around one key point: lack of participation of people of color in the industry,” said At-Large Laurel Council member Martin Mitchell (D) during a hearing.
Mitchell has been publicly vocal for cannabis legalization and business opportunities for returning citizens and young African-Americans in the growing market.
“Though important, participation does not make up the summation of true equity. A truly equitable cannabis bill would mandate equity in policymaking, equity in administration, equity in enforcement, and equity in the cannabis industry. I’m truly concerned that criminal justice reform and reparative justice has been put on the back burner as we continue to push towards opening up the adult-use market.”
Kevin Ford of Uplift Action Fund (UAF), said UAF rejected the proposed enmeshment of cannabis with alcohol and tobacco, saying it perpetuated “enforcement culture that’s produced racial disparities in the past.”
“We cannot ignore that across the country there is a power grab by big tobacco and alcohol for the cannabis market share and their strategy to utilize increased enforcement to protect their interests. We ask for separate oversight of medical, hemp and adult-use cannabis,” said.
Both Council member Mitchell and UAF support an independent cannabis commision.
To prevent market consolidation and inequity, a new Office of Social Equity is planned to promote participation by people impacted by the War on Drugs. That effort would include creation of both a Community Reinvestment and Repair Fund, to allocate money to the traditionally affected communities, and a Cannabis Business Assistance Fund, to increase minority participation in the program. As written, these are likely to provide additional government financing into zip codes that faced the most arrests during the War on Drugs.
Baltimore Sen. Jill P. Carter (D) offered an amendment to grant anyone arrested for marijuana possession a social equity license, an amendment that did not pass the Senate.