Marijuana Now Legal In Maryland

The Free State finally got it

Sometimes you have to surrender to win.

It’s July 1, 2023. You can now buy and use recreational marijuana in Maryland. As a proud Maryland native, I thought this day would never come in my lifetime.

I don’t think making marijuana legal is the cure-all for our society, and the new law won’t impact my life in any significant way, but it encourages me that we are headed in the right direction in determining what drugs should be legal and which ones should not — and for what reason.

Making marijuana a Schedule 1 narcotic, which it has been since the 196os, was just plain ignorance — and worse. It was a way to keep the population in line, especially those promoting civil rights and protesting the Vietnam War.

This is what determines a Schedule 1 drug:

“(Drug) has a high potential for abuse, no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States, and a lack of accepted safety for use under medical supervision.”

Marijuana fits none of that criteria.

We’ve had our heads up our collective asses since Nixon launched his nifty little way to arrest African-Americans and long-haired white kids (see: War On Drugs). I wish I could tell the late president that the…