A Maryland legislator has proposed a constitutional amendment which would allow voters to decide whether to legalize marijuana.
Delegate David Moon, a Democrat who represents Montgomery County, says, “We’re probably at a place in Maryland where a majority of voters support marijuana legalization, but a very small minority of politicians don’t seem to be willing to take that step. So, I have a simple proposition. If the politicians have a problem even discussing this issue, let’s let the voters decide. Get out of the way, take the politics out of it and put it straight to the voters on the ballot.”
Delegate Moon points to the 2012 ballot question in which Maryland voters approved Question 7, which expanded gambling to table games and authorized a new casino to be built at National Harbor in Prince George’s County overlooking the Potomac River.
Recreational use of marijuana is legal in four states as well as Washington, D.C. In Colorado and Washington State, voters approved the issue.
But Delegate Moon’s bill likely to face an uphill battle in the General Assembly because a constitutional amendment requires a three-fifths majority vote in both the Maryland Senate and House of Delegates. Testimony was heard in Annapolis last year on a bill which would have legalized pot, but because of a lack of support, the measure never came up for a vote in committee.
Click here to read the rest of the article written by John Rydell over at Fox Baltimore