Baltimore voters have overwhelmingly approved a local ballot initiative to create a city fund meant to support communities that were disproportionately impacted by marijuana prohibition before the state enacted legalization. The initiative will be supported by tax revenue from cannabis sales.
The measure, known as Question G, passed 76-24 percent at the ballot last week.
While the statewide legalization law in Maryland provides that 35 percent of tax dollars derived from the 9 percent tax on adult-use marijuana sales must go to a community reinvestment fund, localities are still required to separately pass legislation on how they intend to distribute any funds they receive.
Baltimore is set to receive the highest portion of that state-allocated funding, as the city accounted for about 30 percent of marijuana possession arrests from July 1, 2002 to January 1, 2023—the period that’s being used as a baseline to distribute the dollars in the interest of advancing reparations for disproportionately impacted communities.
State law defines such communities as geographic areas with over 150 percent of the 10-year average for cannabis possession arrests statewide.
The now-passed Question G, the Baltimore measure, states: “For the purpose establishing a continuing, non-lapsing Community Reinvestment and Reparations Fund, to be
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