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Maryland Governor Signs Medical Marijuana Bill

By Lindsay F. Wiley [Bio]

May 23, 2003 - Maryland became the ninth state to relax restrictions on medicinal marijuana use for seriously ill patients yesterday when Governor Robert L. Ehrlich, Jr. signed a bill reducing the maximum penalty to a $100 fine. The law, which goes into effect on October 1, 2003, applies to defendants possessing less than one ounce of the drug who can prove they used marijuana out of medical necessity and with a doctor’s recommendation. For others, the maximum penalty is one year in prison and a $1000 fine.

Ehrlich, who is the first Republican governor to sign a bill relaxing penalties for medicinal use of marijuana, signed the measure despite pressure from the Bush administration to veto it. The administration has targeted marijuana in its anti-drug efforts, campaigning against proposals similar to the Maryland bill in several states, prosecuting medicinal marijuana growers and distributors in California, and arguing that the Canadian government should reject a plan to reduce or eliminate criminal penalties for marijuana users.