UPDATE from Americans for Safe Access:
“The Maryland State Senate voted 41-6 to pass a bill today that would give an affirmative defense to qualified patients who are arrested and prosecuted for possessing or growing medical marijuana. Senate Bill 308 amends the 2003 Darrel Putnam Compassionate Use Act, which already allows for a “medical necessity” defense but still results in a misdemeanor conviction and a $100 fine. The new Senate legislation would keep patients with “clear and convincing evidence” from being convicted and from sustaining a punitive fine.
SB 308 was amended earlier this month when its House companion bill stalled in committee due to opposition from the new administration’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DHMH). Both houses of the state legislature were prepared to pass a comprehensive bill this year that would have protected patients from arrest and prosecution altogether, and would have established a state-run production and distribution system. However, the new DHMH Director estimated the cost of such a program at more than $7 million over a 5-year period, despite a fiscal impact assessment of less than 1/10th of that amount for an almost identical bill debated last year. Advocates called this year’s fiscal impact extremely inflated, based on an inaccurate needs assessment.
“Rather than endure another failed attempt to pass meaningful medical marijuana policy in Maryland, patients have instead decided to support this stopgap measure,” said Caren Woodson, Government Affairs Director with Americans for Safe Access (ASA), the country’s largest medical marijuana advocacy group. “It’s not ideal, but the bill will help patients avoid what is now a guaranteed conviction if arrested.” ASA worked with State Senator Jamie Raskin (D-Montgomery County) to craft the amended version of SB 308, which also includes language to study the elements of a comprehensive policy change with the aim of passing such legislation next year.
SB 308 will now proceed to the House of Delegates for a floor vote and, if passed, will then go to Governor O’Malley for signature. Patient advocates have vowed to pass more comprehensive legislation next year by working with DHMH and the legislature to design a policy that not only protects patients from arrest and prosecution, but also establishes a system of licensed cultivation and distribution.”
Further information:
Text of SB 308: http://AmericansForSafeAccess.org/downloads/Maryland_SB308_Amended.pdf
Maryland is moving on bills that would legalize medical marijuana for ill residents and decriminalize possession for all adults. Both had committee hearings scheduled on March 3.
HB 291/ SB 308, the medical cannabis legislation is sponsored by Dan Morhaim, the only licensed physician in the MD Assembly.
But in a battle of the doctors current Secretary of Maryland’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DHMH), Dr. Joshua M. Sharfstein, voiced concerns over using cannabis as medicine.
“This is not just because marijuana is a controlled substance. It is also because marijuana, unlike approved pharmaceuticals, has not been characterized, studied, and determined by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to be safe and effective.”
In late February, the Maryland General Assembly also held a hearing for a bill to decriminalize the personal possession of small amounts of cannabis by adults.
HB 606 would reduce punishment for small amount of pot to a civil citation and a nominal fine. Currently Maryland prosecutes possession of any amount as a criminal misdemeanor.
Phillip Strause, a marijuana activist local to Maryland and Virginia had this to say about HB291,
“The Department of Health and Mental Hygiene requested to work with Delegate Morhaim to ‘craft a better bill.’ The bill is currently not scheduled to be voted on for this reason. I believe political fear drives the system in MD, as few are willing to condone such a shift in policy.”
He added, “HB 606 has been heard in committee but has yet to be voted upon. I feel this is an excellent step in the correct direction but insufficient in fixing the heart of the problem, the perception that cannabis is more dangerous than it actually is.”
Ken Wolski, the Executive Director of the Coalition for Medical Marijuana—New Jersey (CMMNJ) submitted supporting testimony for MD through Americans for Safe Access saying,
“The Maryland bill closely resembles the Compassionate Use Medical Marijuana Act that passed into law in January 2010 in the Garden State. Over one year since the NJ law passed, not a single patient has yet received legal medical marijuana in state; there is not a single dispensary even close to opening; and not a single, legal, marijuana plant is even growing in this state.
Maryland needs to propose a bill that has at least some chance of actually getting marijuana to qualified patients. A provision for home cultivation is really the only way to guarantee this, as New Jersey’s experience proves.”
Read – Health chiefs in NJ and MD fight marijuana as ‘medicine’
Find out more about the efforts in The Free State: http://www.mpp.org/states/maryland/
Diane Fornbacher has been a cannabis law reform activist for 15 years. She has worked with some of the top reform organizations (NORML, Drug Policy Alliance, ASA, The November Coalition). Fornbacher is the current Vice Chair of the NORML Women’s Alliance and serves on the board of The Coalition for Medical Marijuana New Jersey (CMMNJ). When she isn’t working to change the cannabis laws, she enjoys photography and writing/performing poetry. Contact grassroots {at} freedomisgreen.com