On Saturday Maryland became the 16th state in the US to pass legislation decriminalizing marijuana. The bill needs a signature from Gov. Martin O’Malley who expressed grave reservations about decriminalization and legalization when the session began in January.

A Senate bill sponsored by Sen. Bobby Zirkin of Baltimore County passed the House of Delegates in a 78-55 vote after amendments offered by opponents were rejected during two hours of intense debate.

Lawmakers in both chambers have lauded the efforts of Del. Keiffer Mitchell and the Legislative Black Caucus for resuscitating the bill after Del. Joe Vallario, the powerful chair of the judiciary, tried to kill it with a task force study over the next two years.

House Judiciary Chair Joe Vallario, D-Prince George’s

Del. Keiffer Mitchell, D-Baltimore City

Vallario, D-Prince George’s, has been historically opposed to decriminalization.

But a wave of Democrats revolted against Vallario knowing there were ample votes for passage. On Friday morning Mitchell led with a floor amendment to kill the task force idea and bring Zirkin’s original bill to a vote—citing a long history of racial disparity in enforcement of the marijuana laws.

“It is my belief and others that we in good conscious cannot allow a task force to take place for two years while there is racial disparity,” Mitchell, D-Baltimore City, told his colleagues on Friday. “We believe it is not something that should be continued to be studied…as the facts continue to stare us in the face.

The bill was then sent back to the judiciary where the task force idea was scrapped and only minor changes were made to Zirkin’s original bill.

If signed into law by O’Malley, possession of 10 grams or less would become a fineable civil offense with no jail time. The measure also provides privacy protections that shield civil citations from public inspection and prohibit publication on the Maryland Judiciary website.

The law would take effective Oct. 1 and require mandatory court hearings and treatment for violators under the age of 21. Anyone over 21 would only have to appear on the third offense and be subject to a drug treatment program.  First, second and third offenses would carry fines of up to $100, $250 and $500 respectively.

Anyone under 18 would be referred to the juvenile system in a manner similar to under age drinking.

Del. Heather Mizeur

A source in the Senate told the Spy “there are no foreseeable issues with the House amendments. It will most likely pass.”

The changes mirror the recommendations in an ACLU report last year.

The report said that 88 percent of all drug arrests in the US from 2001 to 2010, over seven million arrests, were for possession. In 2010 alone the states spent $3.6 billion enforcing marijuana possession laws.

Maryland’s marijuana possession laws have been blamed for kludging the legal and law enforcement systems. An analysis from the Maryland Department of Legislative Services cited 19,828 arrests in 2013 for amounts of 10 grams or less–and resulted 3,099 cases of fines and incarceration.The report also said that blacks were nearly four times more likely to get arrested than whites “who use marijuana at similar rates.”

Del. Mike Smigiel, R-Cecil

Del. Heather Mizeur, whose running a distant third in Maryland’s Democratic gubernatorial primary, said the bill had the support of 90 percent of Marylanders and would remove a barrier to housing and employment.

“Every year that we lack the courage to move forward on this issue means that 23,000 more people are dragged through our criminal justice system,” Mizeur, D-Montgomery, said during floor debate on Saturday. “[These are] people who have real consequences on whether they can find employment, keep housing and get access to their scholarships.”

Del. Mike Smigiel, a lawyer on the judiciary, and the legislature’s most staunch libertarian, told opponents that Maryland’s marijuana laws had failed and that moving enforcement to civil court would not cause an increase in marijuana use.

“It isn’t going to stop all the problems because we say you’re not going to go to jail,” Smigiel said. “Everyone of the states that has either legalized, or went to decriminalization, has had no increase, there’s been no problems.”

“This is going to be an opportunity to stop taking people who make a mistake and turning them into criminals for using something and doing something that isn’t harming another,” He said. “We stand up here all the time…and rally about getting government out of our lives, and to let us live our lives, and now we’re getting government out of your life.”

He said that many police officers testified before committees this session in favor of decriminalization. Smigiel was one of only three Republicans in the House and the only Eastern Shore legislator in either chamber to support the bill.

In the audio at right, Del. Herb McMillan, R-Anne Arundel, spoke in support of decriminalization and said people should’t go to jail for possessing a small amount of marijuana.

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Del. Keiffer Mitchell, D- Baltimore

Updated 2:30 p.m.–Del. Keiffer Mitchell, D-Baltimore City, offered a floor amendment today in the House of Delegates to strike another amendment that would put a marijuana decriminalization bill on hold for two years with the creation of a task force to further study the issue.

He said the racial disparities in marijuana arrests can’t wait another two years.

“It is my belief and others that we in good conscious cannot allow a task force to take place for two years while there is racial disparity regarding the possession of marijuana and the [number] of arrests. We believe it is not something that should be continued to be studied…as the facts continue to stare us in the face,” Mitchell said.

Mitchell’s amendment leaves the Senate bill passed in March in its original form–with only a minor change that moves the effective date of the legislation from Oct. 1 to Jan. 1, 2015. The bill would make possession of 10 grams or less a fineable civil offense of up to $100.

The bill was special ordered until Saturday’s session to allow time to negotiate with House Judiciary Chair Joe Vallario, an opponent of decriminalization who authored the two-year task force amendment in committee on Wednesday.

Mitchell offered the amendment with Del. Nathaniel Oaks, D-Baltimore City.

“It puts the bill back in a posture of the Senate bill as it came over [to the House],” Mitchell said.

This Morning’s Story: MD Democrats Seek GOP Help to Pass Pot Decriminalization in 11th Hour

There’s still hope that marijuana decriminalization could pass in Maryland this year if the House of Delegates today can kill a new amendment passed by the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday that appoints a task force to study the issue for two years — essentially kicking the can down the road.

Del. Mike Smigiel, R-Cecil

The original bill that passed the Senate overwhelmingly in March would make possession of 10 grams or less a fineable civil offense.  But Del. Joe Vallario, the powerful chair of the House Judiciary Committee would not allow his committee to vote on the original Senate bill.

Committee member, Del. Michael Smigiel, R-Cecil, told the Spy on Friday that the original Senate bill would probably pass the House if brought to a vote.

““There will be a fight, the Democrats are “whipping” really hard on the floor to get Republicans to join,” Smigiel said moments before Friday’s session. “I will vote for decriminalization, [enforcement] has been a waste of time, money and manpower. We could be focused on much more important things.”

Smigiel told the Spy in a taped interview in February that law enforcement officials have spent their entire careers fighting a “lost war.”

He said decriminalizing marijuana would open up jail space for the most violent offenders.

“Take away the criminal aspect,” Smigiel said in the interview. “You can open up those jail cells for people who are rapists, murders and arsonists.”

Chestertown Police Chief Adrian Baker said “arrests for 10 grams or less are more common than arrests for amounts over 10 grams in Chestertown.”

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Updated Apr. 3, 9 p.m. — The House Judiciary Committee killed a marijuana decriminalization bill yesterday by giving it to a task force to study for two years. Del. Joe Vallario, the powerfull chair of the judiciary, would not bring the bill to a vote.

This is the second straight year that a decriminalization bill sponsored by Sen. Bobby Zirkin, D-Baltimore, passed overwhelmingly in the Senate—only to die in Vallario’s committee in the House.

Vallario has long been an opponent of decriminalization.

Under the task force measure, several marijuana bills, including one aimed at legalizing recreational use, was bundled for study by a task force that will report back to the governor by December 2015.

The task force plan must pass both chambers to go into effect–and is likely to see contentious floor debate in the House on Friday, Apr. 4.

Zirkin’s chief of staff, Ryan Lhotsky, said there was still a chance the bill could be revived in the conference committee before the session ends—but if not—would be reintroduced next year.

“We’re not giving up hope on this bill yet,” Lhotsky told the Spy in a brief phone call on Thursday. “The senator has said that if decriminalization doesn’t go through this year it will be the first of his priorities next session.”

The bill would have made possession of 10 grams or less a civil offense with a fine of up to $100 dollars on the first two offenses. A third offense would have allowed judges to order drug treatment.

Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD) held a roundtable discussion with group of health care professionals, administrators and advocates at the Shore Medical Pavilion in Queen Anne’s County on Friday on the progress of the Affordable Care Act and the need to increase enrollment to make the system more cost effective.

“Put me down on the side that is glad Congress passed the ACA,” Cardin said. “I’m proud that millions of Americans have been able to be helped by it.”

<em>In the video below, Cardin discusses the benefits of the ACA and the need for greater enrollment as a vehicle to make the system more efficient.</em>

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Cardin said he’s received hundreds of letters from constituents who’ve benefitted from the law since it was enacted four years ago.

“[These] are people who no longer have to worry about pre-existing conditions,” Cardin said. “The pre-existing conditions could have been the fact that you’re a woman, could have been the fact that you gave birth, could have been the fact that you’re victim of spousal abuse, could have been that you had asthma. All those were pre-existing conditions, and you didn’t have full coverage.”

<em>In the video below, Cardin reads a letter from Kelly, a Maryland resident who after many years was finally able to afford insurance and manage her health care with “dignity.”</em>

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Cardin said medical bills would no longer be cause of financial hardship.

“Medical bills were the leading cause of bankruptcy and that’s going to become a thing of the past,” Cardin said. “We now have affordable options. People can now afford to buy health insurance and you’re getting a quality product.”

Cardin also said the culture of preventative care is changing American health care from a “sick” system to a “heal care” system that “keeps people healthy.”

Medicare has been extended by over a decade under the ACA with the elimination of the “donut whole,” Cardin said.  “So many seniors had to decide whether they could literally afford their prescriptions or had to cut a pill in half because they couldn’t afford it.”

Many of the benefits of the law are not controversial when you talk to people one-on-one, like parents who want to keep their adult age children insured until they’re 26 and the elimination the lifetime cap on coverage when you get sick, Cardin said.

He acknowledged the problems with the rollout of the Maryland Health Benefit Exchange but said enrollment so far of six million nationally had approached the March 31 target of seven million.

“The rollout of the exchanges was a disaster, I acknowledge that, it was terrible, no excuse for it,” he said. “We had an objective to get seven million enrolled in private insurance by the end of March [and] we’re at six million. We’re moving along and we’re getting people enrolled nationwide.”

He said while Medicaid enrollees had reached 250,000 in Maryland but only 50,000 Marylanders had been enrolled in private insurance.

“We can do a lot better,” Cardin said. “When we say we’re not doing well, we’re sorry that we’re not going to have more people insured.”

“The system is going to work, it’s going to work a lot better than it did in the past, and next year we’ll have a lot more people in the system, and we will get to that point where the overwhelming majority are in the system and we can restructure the healthcare system and make it more cost effective.”

The second male suspect in the armed robbery of the Back 50 Tavern in Kingstown on Oct. 27 is now in custody in Queen Anne’s County after extradition from Rankin County Mississippi.

Montrail Cortezy Montgomery, 37, originally of Worton, is being held on a $2.5 million bond at the Queen Anne’s County Detention Center and is scheduled for a pre-trial hearing on April 21 in Queen Anne’s County District Court.

Montgomery was located in Mississippi with the help of US Marshals on or about March 11, said TFC William Abey, the lead investigator in the robbery with the Maryland State Police Criminal Enforcement Division Upper Shore.

Montgomery was charged with multiple counts that include armed robbery and assault. He is alleged to have participated in the Back 50 robbery with Vontaye Lamont Gilbert, 33, of Chestertown.  The Back 50 is the former Howard’s Tavern.

Gilbert was picked up by Dover City Police on Dec. 19 and is currently held in Smyrna at the James T. Vaughn Detention Center for his alleged participation in a string of armed robberies in Delaware and the Maryland Eastern Shore between October and December of last year.

Chronology of Upper Shore robberies last fall:

Oct. 26 – Back 50 in Kingstown

Nov. 6 – Domino’s Chestertown

Nov. 11 – Farm Stores Chestertown

Nov. 18 – Domino’s Centreville

Nov. 25 – 7-11 Easton

Nov. 25 – 7-11 Centreville

Nov. 28 – Domino’s Easton