The hot button issues before the Maryland General Assembly were the musings of Gov. Martin O’Malley, House Speaker Michael Busch, and Senate President Mike Miller on the Marc Steiner Show on Wednesday as the 2014 session got underway.
A move afoot to legalize recreational use of marijuana will likely incite vigorous debate and rallies outside the State House – but the leaders of both chambers are split — making passage unlikely this session.
Miller favors legalization as inevitable across the US but Busch says a move towards decriminalization and treatment is a better option. O’Malley would likely veto any bill that legalizes pot, referring to it as a “gateway” drug.
“We’ve seen what drug addiction has done to the people of our state, the people of our city,” O’Malley told Steiner. “I also know this drug and its use, and its abuse, can be a ‘gateway’ to even more harmful behavior.”
O’Malley admitted that the same argument could be made for alcohol — but that the solution was not “to promote greater access and greater abuse of drugs.”
Miller said the Senate would take up decriminalization for possessing “small amounts” of pot – but he conceded that legalizing recreational use was not achievable in Maryland for a while.
“It’s a long way away in Maryland,” Miller said. “It’s not going to happen anytime soon, but I think the majority of the states are going to move in that direction eventually.”
“I think there’s too many kids who are in jails…because of the use of marijuana,” Busch responded. “I think we would be better off with civil citations and mandatory treatment, but I’m in no way supportive of recreational marijuana.”
Busch equated marijuana with tobacco as a danger to human health.
“We’ve spent years trying to get young children off tobacco, which is a carcinogen and marijuana is still a carcinogen,” he said.
It has been rare over the years for two Eastern Shore Republicans to find agreement with O’Malley on anything — but Dels. Addie Eckardt, R-Talbot, and Jay Jacobs, R-Kent, say they too oppose any move towards legalization.
In the video below, Eckardt and Jacobs discuss their opposition to legalization.
Raising the minimum wage
There are grumblings among Republicans that the plan to raise the minimum wage is a”vote-grabbing” move in an election year meant to force the GOP to so “no” to a wage increase for low income earners.
Senate President Mike Miller, Spy file photo by Daniel Menefee
But Miller told the Spy “when you’re talking about a single mom that has to buy tennis shoes for her kids, you realize that $7.25 doesn’t cut it.”
Miller said there is talk to raise the minimum wage to $10.10 in 2014. He said that the increase would be reasonable to avoid any adverse impacts on businesses.
“We’re not going to set a minimum wage that’s going to put anyone out of business,” Miller said.
Eckardt and Jacobs say the impact of a wage hike would threaten Eastern Shore businesses and young workers looking to enter the job market.
In the video below, Eckardt and Jacobs discuss their opposition to a minimum wage hike.
Gren Whitman says
Editor,
Fact: Health-wise, tobacco and alcohol are far riskier than marijuana, yet they are legal for adults and, as such, are generally available as well to younger persons.
Another fact: Despite being illegal in Maryland, marijuana is readily available to anyone who wishes to buy it.
Opinion: The obvious remedy to this silly set of laws and circumstances is to decriminalize and regulate marijuana—as in Colorado—and have the state reap the extra tax revenues.