MARYLAND, USA — Maryland residents will head to the polls next week to vote on whether cannabis should be legalized in their state.
Residents will vote on Question 4, which will decide if Maryland will create a new constitutional amendment to legalize recreational marijuana use for people ages 21 and up next July.
Among other things, the legislation would also provide expungement opportunities for people with cannabis-related offenses on their record. However, Marylanders would not be allowed to have more than two cannabis plants, per the amendment language.
On Thursday, supporters of the “Yes on 4” campaign even released a web advertisement that will be seen by residents in Prince George’s and Montgomery counties.
“These new digital ads are designed to reach voters who might otherwise not be aware that marijuana legalization is on their ballot,” stated Eugene Monroe, Yes on 4 Campaign Chairman, in a statement. “Our campaign is working hard to build a broad coalition of voters who know Question 4 will bring jobs and justice to Maryland.”
Losia Nyankale serves as executive director of Maryland NORML and said the ballot initiative is something that should have been passed long ago.
“Just over-policing, a plant, a drug, a medicine that we all know has these beneficial uses,” she said.
Maryland decriminalized simple possession of cannabis in 2014. However, the American Civil Liberties Union found in 2018 that police arrested Black people in the state more than twice the rate they did white people for certain cannabis-related offenses.
Nyankale said such arrests have created a ripple effect of negative consequences for some families in the state.
“When somebody goes to jail to prison, and from a family, that is the main provider, then that family comes into a financial crisis,” she said. “That then leads into a lack of education by not having the resources to go into further education, which then goes into the job market [and] an inability to get jobs,”
However, some opponents of Question 4, like Maryland resident Dr. Christine Miller, do not believe the item should even be on Marylanders’ ballots.
“This is a very complex topic that I don't feel the public has been well educated enough in order to vote on it and make an informed choice,” she said. “There are some topics that are better for the legislature to define.”
Miller said she is concerned Maryland could follow a path similar to Colorado, which observed an increase in minors admitted for marijuana-related illnesses after it legalized the substance for recreational use. She said other studies, including one published in the medical journal The Lancet have shown issues with youth who use marijuana.
“Maryland is going to be walking into some of the experiences that states like Colorado have faced,” she said. “Increased rates of youth admission to urgent care for psych problems related to marijuana use.”
That is not Miller’s only concern either.
“Other things to be worried about is the increase in traffic fatalities,” she said.
Nyankale dismissed those concerns.
“We know the truth,” she said. “A lot of the negative information or false information that's really being spread around cannabis comes from years of cannabis prohibition. I think it's something ingrained in some people to automatically have that response.”
A Washington Post – University of Maryland poll found in late September that the majority of the state’s voters support Question 4.
Miller admitted the initiative is likely to pass. However, she said she is hopeful Maryland state lawmakers will put certain safeguards into place if it does.
“For example, I think there should be a red flag law similar to purchasing guns that someone who has experienced a cannabis-induced psychosis should not be able to purchase marijuana,” she said. “And, that's because it poses the danger to them as well as to others.”