Ask your Maryland delegates to support the medical marijuana task force bill

On Tuesday, March 24, the Maryland House of Delegates Judiciary Committee is holding a hearing on H.B. 1339, legislation that will establish a task force to study issues relating to medical marijuana in Maryland. But for the state to take another step it's essential that lawmakers hear from their constituents.

Maryland passed an incomplete medical marijuana law in 2003, and efforts to try to amend this law stalled in the Judiciary Committee in 2007. This year, Delegate Henry Heller (D-Montgomery County), working with our ally Americans for Safe Access, introduced H.B. 1339, which would create a task force to collect data and make recommendations about Maryland's medical marijuana law. Please help us by urging your delegates to support this medical marijuana task force bill and asking them to encourage their colleagues to do so as well and vote it out of committee to the House floor.

Maryland's current law prevents seriously ill patients from being sentenced to prison for using or possessing marijuana for personal use if they can prove, as a mitigating factor, evidence of a "medical necessity." This law is inadequate and inferior to the 13 modern medical marijuana laws, as it still subjects patients to a trial, a criminal conviction, and a $100 fine even if they prove "medical necessity." It also fails to provide for registry identification cards protecting patients from arrest. Worse still, legitimate patients have no legal access to their medicine and are forced to turn to the underground market to treat their conditions. All 13 effective medical marijuana laws allow patients and caregivers to cultivate an adequate supply of medicine.

If the bill passes, a task force would evaluate whether the current state law is effective, fair, and equally enforced across all state jurisdictions, recommend whether purchasing marijuana with a recommendation from a health care provider should be included in the law, and study the feasibility of having the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and the University of Maryland School of Medicine establish research programs to study the medical and social issues relating to the therapeutic use of marijuana.

All patients suffering from a condition who could benefit from medical marijuana, medical professionals, law enforcement, and clergy please contact me at NMamber@mpp.org to see how you can be of special help in passing this legislation.

Thank you for supporting the Marijuana Policy Project. And please pass this on to friends and family in Maryland so that even more voices for compassion can be heard.