Leadership Priority Legislation

Over the years, many of you have asked me about legalizing cannabis for adult recreational use. This year leadership is behind two bills on this topic: HB 1 and HB 837. HB 1 would establish a Constitutional Amendment to allow adult use. If the legislature passes HB 1, it will then go to the voters and appear on the 2022 ballot as a referendum. HB 837 is a companion bill; if HB 1 passes the referendum, HB 837 will ensure that it is implemented equitably and that it works to rectify some of the harm caused by the failed 'war on drugs' that targeted low-income communities and communities of color. 
The bills will:

  • Allow Marylanders to possess up to 1.5 ounces of recreational cannabis without penalty. Possession over 1.5 ounces of cannabis and up to 2.5 ounces of cannabis would be reduced to a civil offense rather than a misdemeanor. 
  • Automatically 1) expunge the conviction of anyone previously found guilty of simple possession of marijuana if it was the only charge in the case, and 2) permit anyone currently held in a state prison or local jail for a cannabis conviction to be resentenced to end their term of incarceration. 
  • Conduct a study to collect data on patterns of use, incidents of impaired driving, and the impact cannabis use has on public health. 
  • Establish the Cannabis Public Health Advisory Council to study and make annual recommendations regarding the youth impacts, addiction and misuse, infant development, advertising, labeling, and quality control of legalized cannabis. 
  • Conduct a disparity study that will inform the creation of a more equitable regulatory system and identify barriers to entering the industry. 
  • Create a small, minority–owned, and women–owned Cannabis Business Assistance Fund that will assist those disproportionately impacted by marijuana laws and support business incubators, educational programs at HBCUs and more.

You can read Chair Clippinger's Baltimore Sun OpEd here.

Committee Hearings

Hearings in the Environment & Transportation Committee generally follow a pattern: Tuesdays we hear bills on housing and real property; Wednesdays we hear bills on the environment, natural resources, agriculture and land use; and Thursdays we hear bills on transportation and motor vehicles. You can see all the hearings (both live-streamed and on YouTube) here.

While we heard many interesting bills this week, I highlight only one here as it is of particular interest to me and many constituents who have reached out to my office.

HB 307 - Creating a Producer Responsibility Program. Currently, many products come in excess packaging that drastically increase our waste production and impose a significant cost on our counties to process. Yet there is no incentive for producers of packaging to make different, more sustainable choices. HB 307 creates that incentive through empowering the Maryland Department of the Environment to set up an Extended Producer Responsibility program. You can watch the hearing here.

My Bill Hearings

This was another busy week for me as three of my bills had hearings on Wednesday:
HB 135 - requiring single-use plastics such as straws, stirrers, utensils, and condiments to be provided on request only. You can watch the hearing here.

HB 259/SB 335 - requiring that companies collecting our biometric identifiers (fingerprints, face scans, voice prints, etc.) must: get our consent before collecting the identifiers, keep them safe, have a retention and destruction policy, and not sell them. You can watch the hearing here. Senator Feldman, Vice Chair of the Senate Finance Committee, is the cross-file. His hearing is on Wednesday, 2/9.

HB 217 - creating a task force to review the Maryland Recycling Act (MRA). The MRA was visionary when it was enacted in the 1980s, but it hasn't been updated since. HB 217 pulls together stakeholders from environmentalists to industry members to localities in order to review and recommend changes to the MRA that will keep up with the changing demands of waste and recycling management today.You can watch the hearing here.


Montgomery County Legislation

This week, we celebrated the passage of the Montgomery County Green Buildings Now Act. The legislation creates dedicated funding to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the building sector and advance climate goals by dedicating 10% of the County Energy Tax revenues annually to the Montgomery County Green Bank. The General Assembly will be watching the implementation of this new law in Montgomery County as we consider green building legislation at the State level.