Pubdate: Mon, 20 Jan 2014
Source: Cumberland Times-News (MD)
Copyright: 2014 Cumberland Times-News
Contact:  http://www.times-news.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1365

SOME MARYLAND DEMOCRATS HOPE TO LEGALIZE, TAX POT

Poll: 51 Percent of State Residents Support Idea

ANNAPOLIS -- Some Democratic lawmakers want to make it legal for 
Maryland residents to possess, use and grow marijuana, which would be 
regulated and taxed like alcohol, they announced last week.

Sen. Jamie Raskin, D-Montgomery, and Del. Curt Anderson, D-Baltimore, 
said their proposed Marijuana Control Act of 2014 would take power 
out of the hands of drug dealers and channel revenue into public 
causes like school construction projects and drug and alcohol 
treatment programs.

"The vast majority of Marylanders have come to the realization that 
the current war on drugs is failing with respect to marijuana," Raskin said.

The senator criticized the current laws banning the drug, saying that 
it drives up the cost of marijuana and enriches drug dealers and 
international organized crime in a way that could be avoided through 
government regulation.

Their proposal would make it legal for Marylanders 21 years of age 
and older to possess as much as an ounce of marijuana, and would 
permit home-growing of up to six marijuana plants. Smoking the drug 
in public would remain illegal.

In November, a Goucher poll found that about 51 percent of 
Marylanders support legalizing marijuana, with about 40 percent in 
opposition. The poll had a 3.8 percent margin of error.

But such sweeping legislation is likely to hit road bumps in the 
General Assembly, where a more modest decriminalization bill failed 
to pass last session.

A similar decriminalization bill, which would shift possession of 
small amounts of marijuana from a criminal to a civil offense, is set 
to appear before lawmakers again this year.

Del. Luiz Simmons, D-Montgomery, said in a phone interview on 
Thursday that he will back that bill, sponsored by Sen. Robert 
Zirkin, D-Baltimore County, and believes the state should act 
cautiously regarding legalization and wait for any lessons that come 
out of states like Colorado, which recently legalized marijuana. 
"This is a wonderful opportunity for us to look at what are huge 
pilot programs in significant states and to learn before we leap," 
Simmons said.

But Raskin, Anderson and other supporters of legalization said that 
any decriminalization bill would fall short. "The problem with 
decriminalization is that it leaves in place the basic dynamics of 
criminal control over the supply of marijuana," Raskin said. "Our 
goal is to kick the drug dealers out of the state, and there is one 
way to do it, which is to regulate and tax marijuana -- let the 
government take over the whole process."

Both lawmakers said that marijuana regulation would also give 
government the ability to control the message surrounding the drug 
and to keep it away from children. It would also allow law 
enforcement officials to focus their time and resources on serious 
violent crimes, like homicide.

Gov. Martin O'Malley recently said he opposes the legalization of 
marijuana, which he called a "gateway to more harmful activity." But 
Anderson spoke out against that notion Thursday, citing studies that 
have shown marijuana not be dangerous.

"What we're trying to do is simply let folks know that marijuana is 
not the addictive drug that you've been led to believe ... and 
marijuana is not the gateway drug you've been led to believe," Anderson said.

He called marijuana "a gateway drug in a totally different respect," 
saying a marijuana arrest can prevent young people from getting jobs 
or getting into schools.

Advocates said that like a decriminalization bill, the Marijuana 
Control Act of 2014 would reduce the number of people whose lives are 
negatively affected by marijuana-related charges. But regulating and 
taxing the drug would also create revenue for the state.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom