Maryland in the Process of Legalizing Medical Marijuana

Maryland is once again exploring a way to legalize the use of medical marijuana. The state has appointed an eighteen member group to work through May 2012 to determine the feasibility of legalizing the use of marijuana for medical purposes.

Medical marijuana has bipartisan support in Maryland’s General Assembly. Earlier this year, legislators considered a proposal to set up a state-run system for producing and distributing marijuana. The proposal was stopped by Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene Secretary Dr. Joshua M. Sharfstein, who contended that many years of research were necessary before the plan could be implemented. Dr. Sharfstein stated concerns of the potential for negative effects of using marijuana for even medical purposes, including memory loss and pregnancy complications.

While medical marijuana is not yet legal in Maryland, the state has modified its criminal laws to accommodate those using marijuana for medical purposes. Maryland law now allows marijuana use or possession defendants to be acquitted if they can prove through their medical records or a physician’s testimony that they have an illness for which marijuana is likely to provide “therapeutic or palliative relief.” Maryland formerly allowed those found to have possessed marijuana for medical purposes to have a reduced penalty of a $100 fine, as opposed to the maximum penalty of one year in jail and $1000 fine for possessing marijuana for recreational purposes.

The medical marijuana bill has been sponsored by Dan K. Morhaim of Baltimore County. Morhaim is the only licensed medical doctor in the Maryland General Assembly and will also serve on the state’s work group aimed at determining the feasibility of such a law. He has stated that it is his intention to see that a law is passed that is “the best product possible that does the most good.”

If medical marijuana is legalized in Maryland, it will be the eighteenth state in the Union to permit marijuana for medical purposes (nineteenth if Washington D.C. is counted).