420 with CNW — Maryland Governor Enacts Bill Offering Parental Protections for Using Medical Marijuana
Maryland Governor Wes Moore has signed a bill offering protections for parents and guardians who use medical marijuana. The bill prevents state officials from classifying parents who use medical marijuana for allowed conditions as being “neglectful” of their children.
After Maryland voters voted in favor of a ballot measure to legalize medical cannabis last year, state lawmakers passed regulations for the commercial market, which were signed into law by the governor. The new bill protecting parents will take effect on July 1, 2023, the same day Maryland’s medical marijuana market will launch and begin legal sales.
The measures to protect parents who participate in the medical marijuana market were passed by Maryland lawmakers last month in anticipation of the market’s official launch. According to the bill’s language, child neglect in Maryland will not include the use of marijuana by any individual or parent with temporary or permanent responsibility for the supervision of a child.
However, the bill provided certain exceptions, including cannabis use among parents and guardians being classified as neglect. This includes if the parent’s or guardian’s cannabis use harms the child’s health or welfare or places the child at significant risk of harm. The bill also allows adults aged 21 years and older to purchase and possess up to 1.5 ounces of cannabis and grow a pair of plants for personal use.
Maryland joins the dozens of states that now allow their residents to use medical marijuana if they suffer from one of several specified conditions. However, since marijuana is still illegal at the federal level, users can find themselves facing legal repercussions despite using cannabis in adherence with state law. States with legal markets have worked around this by providing legal users with protections that prevent them from being punished for using medical cannabis legally.
For example, in California, Governor Gavin Newsom signed a bill that would require social workers on call for child welfare to handle marijuana use by parents the same way they deal with alcohol. Assemblyman Reggie Jones-Sawyer, who sponsored the legislation, stated in a summary that marijuana use by itself shouldn’t be a basis for intervention into family life. He noted that just as with prescription medication and alcohol, guardians and parents should be able to legally and safely consume cannabis without fear of losing custody of their children as long as they aren’t putting the child’s safety and health at risk.
In Maryland, lawmakers recently moved to increase protections for cannabis users by approving a measure to prevent police from using the smell of cannabis as a basis for vehicle searches.
The additional reforms that the lawmakers in Maryland are making will further ease the environment within which cannabis users and companies operate, and this improvement could come with benefits for many companies connected with the cannabis space, including entities such as Advanced Container Technologies Inc. (OTC: ACTX) whose interest is in providing cultivation equipment geared at enabling the optimization of indoor cannabis cultivation.
NOTE TO INVESTORS: The latest news and updates relating to Advanced Container Technologies Inc. (OTC: ACTX) are available in the company’s newsroom at https://cnw.fm/ACTX
Please see full terms of use and disclaimers on the CannabisNewsWire website applicable to all content provided by CNW420, wherever published or re-published: http://CNW.fm/Disclaimer
Maryland Governor Wes Moore has signed a bill offering protections for parents and guardians who use medical marijuana. The bill prevents state officials from classifying parents who use medical marijuana for allowed conditions as being “neglectful” of their children.
After Maryland voters voted in favor of a ballot measure to legalize medical cannabis last year, state lawmakers passed regulations for the commercial market, which were signed into law by the governor. The new bill protecting parents will take effect on July 1, 2023, the same day Maryland’s medical marijuana market will launch and begin legal sales.
The measures to protect parents who participate in the medical marijuana market were passed by Maryland lawmakers last month in anticipation of the market’s official launch. According to the bill’s language, child neglect in Maryland will not include the use of marijuana by any individual or parent with temporary or permanent responsibility for the supervision of a child.
However, the bill provided certain exceptions, including cannabis use among parents and guardians being classified as neglect. This includes if the parent’s or guardian’s cannabis use harms the child’s health or welfare or places the child at significant risk of harm. The bill also allows adults aged 21 years and older to purchase and possess up to 1.5 ounces of cannabis and grow a pair of plants for personal use.
Maryland joins the dozens of states that now allow their residents to use medical marijuana if they suffer from one of several specified conditions. However, since marijuana is still illegal at the federal level, users can find themselves facing legal repercussions despite using cannabis in adherence with state law. States with legal markets have worked around this by providing legal users with protections that prevent them from being punished for using medical cannabis legally.
For example, in California, Governor Gavin Newsom signed a bill that would require social workers on call for child welfare to handle marijuana use by parents the same way they deal with alcohol. Assemblyman Reggie Jones-Sawyer, who sponsored the legislation, stated in a summary that marijuana use by itself shouldn’t be a basis for intervention into family life. He noted that just as with prescription medication and alcohol, guardians and parents should be able to legally and safely consume cannabis without fear of losing custody of their children as long as they aren’t putting the child’s safety and health at risk.
In Maryland, lawmakers recently moved to increase protections for cannabis users by approving a measure to prevent police from using the smell of cannabis as a basis for vehicle searches.
The additional reforms that the lawmakers in Maryland are making will further ease the environment within which cannabis users and companies operate, and this improvement could come with benefits for many companies connected with the cannabis space, including entities such as Advanced Container Technologies Inc. (OTC: ACTX) whose interest is in providing cultivation equipment geared at enabling the optimization of indoor cannabis cultivation.
NOTE TO INVESTORS: The latest news and updates relating to Advanced Container Technologies Inc. (OTC: ACTX) are available in the company’s newsroom at https://cnw.fm/ACTX
Please see full terms of use and disclaimers on the CannabisNewsWire website applicable to all content provided by CNW420, wherever published or re-published: http://CNW.fm/Disclaimer
