Last fall one of the politicians running for an Annapolis office asked me if I agreed that repealing Maryland’s hand gun restrictions was the most important issue that she should focus on if she won the election. I told her “No, that’s not even on my “might-be-an-issue” list. As far as I am concerned, guns are already legal enough.” She followed up with “Well, what do you think I should be focusing on?” I said “Legalizing pot.” She then reacted as if I’d asked her for sex. (In fact I may have gotten a better reaction had I done that.)
But as it turns out, either with or without her focus, it appears that Maryland’s legislature is close to legalizing pot with two bills having been introduced, one in the House and one in the Senate. (However, they probably could have come with a better House Bill number rather than it being known as HB 911.)
And yet, don’t hold your breath (pot pun intended) because just as Maryland bollixed up the whole legalization of gambling process when Governor Ehrlich first proposed it (click here for background story,) the Legislature has unsuccessfully been kicking around pot legalization for a couple of years now. With D.C. having legalized it and neighbors Delaware and Virginia looking into doing so too, it’s only a matter of time before Maryland gets on board too. Hey Annapolis guys and gals, there’s a lot of money to be made tax-wise from pot. Why not repeal the stupid rain tax and enact some kind of pot legislation to offset that income delta? Seems pretty simple to me.
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| From http://www.mpp.org/states/maryland/ |
Here’s hoping that the train is on time. (Did he really introduce this as a modern spiritual?)