Marijuana

A former leader of a youth group of a church in Severn is facing charges that he brought marijuana on a group trip and smoked it with two teenage boys while on an overnight camping trip, Anne Arundel County police said Monday. Benjamin James Siggers, 31, a former substitute teacher in Anne Arundel County Public Schools, was charged with two counts each of possession of marijuana and contributing to the condition of a child, according to court records. He was issued a summons. Police said they and the Department of Social Services began investigating Siggers Feb. 19 in connection with the Severn United Methodist Church group activities.

The General Assembly is poised to pass legislation that would make Maryland the 19th state to legalize marijuana use for medical reasons - though how quickly the state's cancer patients and others might benefit remains in question. The state Senate gave the legislation preliminary approval Friday evening without debate. The bill, which has passed the House, would allow the legal distribution of marijuana by doctors and nurses through academic medical centers. A commission would be set up to spell out the terms under which it would be grown and dispensed.

It's been more than 25 years since Douglas H. Ginsburg asked that his nomination to become a U.S. Supreme Court justice be withdrawn. The prospective high court justice nominated by Ronald Reagan, it turned out, smoked marijuana and ended up admitting to it. Such were the times that there was a vast political divide on the subject of recreational marijuana. The Reagan-Ginsburg side was squarely against it; the opposition joked that everyone knew Ginsberg had smoked marijuana, but their Ginsberg, beat poet Alan Ginsberg, was a standard-bearer of the American counter culture.

A strong odor of marijuana in a Joppa home where Harford County sheriff's deputies had responded to settle a domestic dispute on Sunday has led to the arrests of a young couple and the seizure of about eight pounds of marijuana, the Harford County Sheriff's Office said Thursday. Deputies responded to the home in the 800 block of Chatfield Road about 12:15 p.m. for a report of a verbal altercation between Michael Allen Brandt, 26, and Julia Michele Leonard, 24, the sheriff's office said.

The General Assembly has passed a law that allows caregivers of patients who use medical marijuana to possess up to an ounce of pot without being convicted of a crime. "We are expressing our belief that people who are sick should be able to access the drug without civil or criminal penalties," said Sen. Jamie Raskin, a Montgomery County Democrat who introduced the bill. Patients are protected under a 2011 law that allows them to use medical necessity as an "affirmative defense" in court if caught with marijuana and drug paraphernalia.

Legislation that would decriminalize possession of small amounts of marijuana hit friction in a key committee Thursday afternoon. The proposal to give only a fine - and not jail time - to people caught with less than 10 grams of pot passed the Senate earlier this month with bi-partisan support. On Thursday, lawmakers on the House Judiciary Committee intensely questioned whether the measure went too far. Del. Luiz Simmons pointed out the committee supported the limited medical marijuana plan , currently advancing in the Senate, that involves academic research.

Judges and lawyers - including prosecutors - with whom I have talked all think that marijuana arrests and prosecutions are destructive, costly and ineffective. They agree with the ACLU of Maryland's Susan Goering that marijuana should be decriminalized ("Reform marijuana law," March 24). As a practicing physician, I strongly support that view not just for medical use but for all users. Arthur Milholland Text NEWS to 70701 to get Baltimore Sun local news text alerts

As someone who has worked in the Maryland criminal justice field for over 25 years and has witnessed how "simple" possession and use of marijuana often leads to the abuse of other drugs, I find it disheartening to read that our elected officials are trying to make Maryland part of the minority of states that allow this ("Advocates for legal marijuana take first steps," March 20). The proponents' reasoning is ridiculous, as we all know that most users are getting away with it and that our state courts are not being "strained" by prosecution of these crimes.

Last Monday, the United States celebrated the 50th anniversary of the seminal Supreme Court case of Gideon v. Wainwright. The next day saw the Maryland Senate vote to decriminalize the possession of small amounts of marijuana. There is a synchronicity here. The failure of one public policy poses a problem, the other a brilliant solution - if the Maryland House of Delegates will but take up the mantle of common sensibility and fiscal restraint. For decades, Maryland's heavy penalization of marijuana possession has cost the state millions of dollars in incarceration and court costs and contributed to excessive public defender caseloads without improving public safety or meaningfully reducing drug use. The public policy behind Gideon is the constitutional guarantee that everyone charged with a crime, no matter how poor, must have a lawyer.

Legislation to legalize medical marijuana passed the House of Delegates Monday, sending the measure to the Senate. The bill would allow marijuana to be distributed through academic research centers by doctors and nurses. Similar measures have failed in previous years, but this year Gov. Martin O'Malley dropped his opposition and backed the proposal. Currently, 18 other states and the District of Columbia allows for the use of marijuana for medical purposes. The bill's sponsor, Del. Dan Morhaim, a physician and a Baltimore Democrat, has described Maryland's potential program as the tightest and most controlled of any in the country.