Marijuana Policy Project

ANNAPOLIS, MARYLAND—Maryland's General Assembly today rebuffed White House "Drug Czar" John Walters, becoming the second state legislature to protect medical marijuana patients from the threat of jail. Gov. Robert Ehrlich (R), who cosponsored the States' Rights to Medical Marijuana Act as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, is expected to sign the measure into law.

     Maryland law presently provides penalties for marijuana possession of up to a year in state prison and a $1,000 fine. Under S.B. 502, which the Senate passed today by a 29-17 vote, patients using marijuana to treat the symptoms of illnesses such as cancer, AIDS, and Crohn's disease would face no more than a $100 fine.

     Seven of the existing state medical marijuana laws -- in Alaska, California, Colorado, Maine, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington -- were enacted via ballot initiatives. In 2000, Hawaii became the first state to pass a medical marijuana law through the state legislature.

     Drug Czar John Walters made a last-ditch attempt to stop Maryland's bill on Monday, calling it a "cynical, cruel and immoral effort to use the sick and suffering," according to the Associated Press.

     "Today is an historic day," said Robert Kampia, executive director of the Marijuana Policy Project in Washington, D.C. "The Maryland legislature has shown the courage to defy the federal drug czar by reducing penalties for medical marijuana, right in the backyard of a hostile White House. Unfortunately, the bill is weaker than the laws in the eight states where medical marijuana is legal. The bill protects marijuana-using patients from jail, but they can still be arrested, handcuffed, prosecuted, and forced to pay thousands of dollars in legal fees."

     "I am proud of the Senate for ignoring the last-minute campaign of lies conducted by John Walters," said Erin Hildebrandt, a medical marijuana patient and mother of five from Smithsburg, who testified for the bill. "Crohn's disease used to leave me too sick to even get out of bed, other than to go to the bathroom or the doctor's office, until I discovered that marijuana helped me more than any medicine I had ever tried. Medical marijuana literally gave me my life back. It is John Walters who is cruel, immoral and cynical,' not the people working to protect patients."

     "John Walters lost this battle because science, compassion, and common sense -- not to mention 80 percent of the American people -- are on our side," Kampia added. "We will be back next year to enact full legal protections for patients, and we expect to win."

     With 11,000 members nationwide, the Marijuana Policy Project is the largest marijuana policy reform organization in the United States. MPP works to minimize the harm associated with marijuana -- both the consumption of marijuana and the laws that are intended to prohibit such use. MPP believes that the greatest harm associated with marijuana is imprisonment. To this end, MPP focuses on removing criminal penalties for marijuana use, with a particular emphasis on making marijuana medically available to seriously ill people who have the approval of their doctors.

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