Voters in Baltimore, Maryland will vote next month on a local ballot initiative that would create a city fund to support communities disproportionately impacted by marijuana prohibition before the state enacted legalization. If approved, the effort would be supported by tax revenue from cannabis sales.
While the statewide legalization law 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 Baltimore ballot measure, known as Question G, states: “For the purpose establishing a continuing, non-lapsing Community Reinvestment and Reparations Fund, to be used exclusively to support the work of the Community Reinvestment and
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