Clippinger’s two proposals are relatively straightforward.
It specifies that the purchase and possession of up to 1.5 ounces of cannabis would be legal for adults, and it would remove criminal penalties for possession of up to 2.5 ounces.
The committee also approved amendments to reduce the penalty for public consumption and legalize cannabis paraphernalia.
To study the effects of legalization on the state and its residents, the new statutory bill would also establish various studies, including into youth impacts, use patterns, impaired driving, advertising, labeling, quality control of products and barriers to entering the industry.
The Maryland bill would start by making possession of small amounts of cannabis a civil offense on January 1, 2023, punishable by a $250 fine, with legalization not kicking in for another six months.
Feldman earlier this month introduced SB 833, which would also ask voters to approve a constitutional amendment legalizing cannabis for adults.
Feldman’s 83-page bill would allow home cultivation of up to four plants per adult, with a maximum of eight plants per residence.
Jill Carter , would set higher possession amounts of up to four ounces of marijuana and would allow home cultivation of up to six cannabis plants.
Two years later, a decriminalization law took effect that replaced criminal penalties for possession of less than 10 grams with a civil fine of $100 to $500.
Also that year, the governor vetoed a bill that would have shielded people with low-level cannabis convictions from having their records publicized on a state database.
As for Maryland lawmakers, a House committee in 2019 held hearings on two bills that would have legalized marijuana.
The PAC’s site describes the racial disparities in marijuana criminalization both nationally and in the state.
Recently, British Columbia and its largest city Vancouver applied for a Health Canada Exemption allowing the jurisdictions to decriminalize the possession of drugs including cocaine, amphetamines and opioids.
However, that leaves vast swaths of the country where people who use drugs will continue to be arrested and prosecuted for possession; according to Statistics Canada, in 2019 there were more than 30,000 possession cases in the country across various drugs including heroin, other opioids, methamphetamine and others.
Recently, Canada’s New Democratic Party —a social democratic party that finished as the country’s fourth largest in last year’s federal elections—proposed a federal bill to decriminalize drug possession nationwide.
NDP leader Jagmeet Singh has publicly supported the motion.
“It’s time to truly end the failed war on drugs,” Johns told Filter.
Johns said that decades of criminalization and the rise of extremely potent drugs adulterating the supply—along with a lack of timely access to harm reduction and recovery services—are fueling overdose deaths.
Its functions include creating low-barrier access to safe supply, reducing stigma associated with substance use through various programs, and implementing prevention programs that address the factors—social and economic, among others—that lead to problematic drug use.
According to Donald MacPherson, the executive director of the Canadian Drug Policy Coalition, decriminalization could make people who use drugs feel more comfortable accessing vital services, like health care, as well as reducing arrests.
Brittany Graham, a community organizer and acting executive director of the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users , said that Canada’s current approach of municipalities and provinces applying for the Health Canada exemption doesn’t make sense.
The bill is also light on details, as legislation tends to be at this stage.
For instance, the BC model allows a person to carry a total of 4.5 grams of drugs on their person, while Vancouver’s model allows a person to carry a total of 3.5 grams, but with separate limits by substance such as only 2 grams of opioids, or 3 grams of cocaine.
According to Graham, most people who use drugs in Vancouver will often purchase between 3 and 7 grams. However, this is in a city where drugs are relatively accessible and most people do not need to travel far to get them.
But if you live in the suburbs, you probably go to the grocery store once a week and really bulk buy.
Some people may also want to make larger purchases if they find someone selling a particularly good supply, while others may simply want to limit the number of times they interact with people who sell drugs.
While he believes the bill could be the start of dismantling a “bad system.” And, he urged that if it’s passed, people who use drugs must be included in the process of hammering out the details.
He also noted that police chiefs across Canada have, in the past, supported decriminalization, though that’s not universally the case; those in Alberta, for example, have argued that the province is not yet ready for it.
But in the country’s last election, each of the major political parties gave at least a tacit acknowledgement that prosecuting people for possession wasn’t the right path.
This article was originally published by Filter, an online magazine covering drug use, drug policy and human rights through a harm reduction lens.
A marijuana commissioner under the state Division of Alcohol and Tobacco Enforcement would regulate the industry and oversee licensing of retailers, cultivators, manufacturers and laboratories.
At the time, Osienski pledged to bring a revised bill for the 2022 session that could earn broad enough support to pass.
After 19 months of the bill’s enactment, for example, regulators would have to approve 30 retailer licenses, half of which would go to social equity applicants.
Those applications would also be allotted one-third of the planned 60 cultivation licenses, one-third of manufacturing licenses and two of five licenses for testing laboratories.
Seven percent of the tax revenue would be used to support a new Justice Reinvestment Fund that would provide grants, services and other initiatives that focus on issues such as jail diversion, workforce development and technical assistance for people in communities that are economically disadvantaged and disproportionately impacted by the drug war.
In 2019, Osienski was the chief sponsor of a legalization bill that cleared a House committee but did not advance through the full chamber.
As supportive lawmakers work to push the bill through the legislature, they also face the challenge of winning over Gov.
Despite his wariness about adult-use legalization, Carney did sign two pieces of marijuana expungement legislation in recent years.
An analysis from State Auditor Kathy McGuiness released last year found that Delaware could generate upwards of $43 million annually in revenue from regulating marijuana and imposing a 20 percent excise tax.