This article was republished with permission from 海角精品黑料’s news partners at .聽Sign up for today.
This content was republished with permission from 海角精品黑料鈥檚 news partners at Maryland Matters. Sign up for today.
The Maryland House of Delegates passed a bill Friday that would allow voters to decide whether to legalize cannabis.
滨蹿听, sponsored by House Judiciary Chair Luke H. Clippinger (D-Baltimore City), successfully makes it through the Senate chamber, voters can expect to see the question on the 2022 general election ballot.
鈥淲e鈥檙e at the beginning of an important process where we begin to look again at how we have treated the substance 鈥� cannabis,鈥� Clippinger told the chamber Friday. 鈥淭he thousands and thousands and thousands of people we have incarcerated because of it.鈥�
鈥淎nd those thousands of incarcerations have not made us any safer,鈥� he continued.
The measure was passed on a vote of 96-34 with no debate.
Additionally, the chamber passed聽聽to study the racial impacts of cannabis legalization, create a public health fund, alter the civil and criminal penalties and create a process of expungement for possession of the drug.
The bill passed 92-37. The only dissenting Democrats were Del. Jon S. Cardin (D-Baltimore County) and Del. Gabriel Acevero (D-Montgomery). Delegates Jay Jalisi (D-Baltimore County) and Jay Walker (D-Prince George鈥檚) were present in the chamber聽.
In explaining his vote, Acevero said that he supports cannabis legalization and voters having a say, but there are aspects of legalization that he believes need to be addressed before the state can move forward.
鈥淚鈥檝e 鈥� made it clear that there are certain aspects to cannabis legalization that we musty also address 鈥� in order for us to move forward and, in part, to learn from what was done in the past that left not only communities behind but an industry that is now not only inequitable, but dominated by people who do not look like the people languishing behind bars and do not live in our state,鈥� he said.
The House also passed an omnibus bill addressing juvenile justice reform.
聽is based on the recommendations of the Juvenile Justice Reform Council, which met between 2020 and 2021 to study issues within Maryland鈥檚 juvenile justice system and make recommendations for reform. The bill would make several reforms, including establishing 10-years-old as the minimum age that children can be charged with a crime; Maryland law currently includes no lower limit for charging a child.
The bill would also set rules for when a child can be held in a detention facility before a trial and limit the amount of time a child can serve probation.
The bill passed out of the chamber on a party-line vote of 92-38.
