Politics
Baltimore Voters Approve Measure To Reinvest Marijuana Tax Dollars In Communities Most Harmed By Prohibition
Baltimore voters have overwhelmingly approved a local ballot initiative to create a city fund meant to support communities that were disproportionately impacted by marijuana prohibition before the state enacted legalization. The initiative will be supported by tax revenue from cannabis sales.
The measure, known as Question G, passed 76-24 percent at the ballot last week.
While the statewide legalization law in Maryland provides that 35 percent of tax dollars derived from the 9 percent tax on adult-use marijuana sales must go to a community reinvestment fund, localities are still required to separately pass legislation on how they intend to distribute any funds they receive.
Baltimore is set to receive the highest portion of that state-allocated funding, as the city accounted for about 30 percent of marijuana possession arrests from July 1, 2002 to January 1, 2023—the period that’s being used as a baseline to distribute the dollars in the interest of advancing reparations for disproportionately impacted communities.
State law defines such communities as geographic areas with over 150 percent of the 10-year average for cannabis possession arrests statewide.
The now-passed Question G, the Baltimore measure, states: “For the purpose establishing a continuing, non-lapsing Community Reinvestment and Reparations Fund, to be used exclusively to support the work of the Community Reinvestment and Reparations Commission to the extent that the work of the commission is within the scope of the use limitations in § 1-322 (‘Community Reinvestment and Repair’) of the State Alcoholic Beverage and Cannabis Article. The Mayor and City Council are authorized, by ordinance, to provide for the oversight, governance, and administration of the Fund.”
The Baltimore City Council passed a measure to create the amendment back in June, and it was formally added to ballot in September. That happened despite opposition from Baltimore Chief Equity Officer Dana Moore, who suggested that because the statewide fund is set to expire in 2033, that could eventually leave the city to front the costs.
Council President Nick Mosby pushed back on that concern, however, arguing that the legislation established a “lock box” that ensures city funds will be kept separate from the state general fund for the purposes of providing the relief to disproportionately impacted communities.
“This is an important step for the city to take, to ensure communities disproportionately affected by the war on drugs receive [compensation],” he said.
At the state level, Maryland saw more than $22.3 million in tax revenue from adult-use marijuana sales during the second quarter of 2024—a 52 percent increase compared to the prior quarter—according to state officials.
The state comptroller, Brooke Lierman, announced in September that cannabis tax dollars totaled $22,357,011 for the second quarter, up from $14,671,110 in the first quarter of the year.
These latest figures came about two months after the Maryland Cannabis Administration (MCA) announced that the state had reached a different marijuana milestone, with licensed retailers having sold more than $1 billion worth of legal marijuana products since the adult-use market opened last July.
Meanwhile, the governor of Maryland said in August that as the state works to build upon its marijuana legalization law, he will continue to “advocate for a sane and a standard federal policy,” including banking reform so that small cannabis businesses have access to capital.
Gov. Wes Moore (D) said that while he’s committed to ensuring that social equity is integral to Maryland’s cannabis market, and his recent mass pardon for past marijuana and paraphernalia convictions is part of that, it remains critical that federal reform advances.
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The governor has been discussing his vision for cannabis reform frequently over the past couple months, as he promotes his recent mass pardon forgiving more than 175,000 marijuana and paraphernalia convictions.
That clemency was about more than addressing the public policy consequences of criminalization,” Moore said in a separate interview. As someone who was exposed to the criminal legal system at an early age, and having been a medical cannabis patient himself, he said there’s an important personal psychological impact of attaining that relief.
In July, Moore and the president of the NAACP also promoted the state’s historic mass marijuana pardon, which they said would unlock the economic potential of people targeted by criminalization. But the governor also stressed the need to get the word out about next steps for the majority of pardon recipients whose records weren’t automatically expunged by his clemency move.
Moore has also gained praise from the White House and other officials such as Colorado Gov. Jared Polis (D) for his cannabis clemency move.
Aside from cannabis, the governor in May also signed a pair of bills into law to establish a psychedelics task force that will study legal access to substances like psilocybin and DMT.
Photo courtesy of Mike Latimer.
