Assessing the Crack-down on Marijuana in Maryland

We wish particularly to thank the police departments in Baltimore City, Montgomery County and Prince George's County for providing data and giving us permission to accompany patrol officers in ride-alongs. Data were also provided by the Maryland Department of Public Safety, the Maryland Alcohol and Drug Abuse Administration and the departments of correction in Montgomery and Prince George's County. We also appreciate assistance from Cynthia Lum. The opinions expressed here are the sole responsibility of the authors. Summary There has long been a body of opinion that criminal sanctions are unnecessarily harsh for minor marijuana offenses. In the 1970s eleven states, not including Maryland, removed those sanctions, replacing them with fines and civil penalties. In the last few years a number of Western nations (e.g., Australia, Belgium, Germany) have done the same and in some cases removed all penalties, though retaining the prohibition. The recent increases in arrests, the publicity about the rise in high school use, as well as the passage of referenda allowing marijuana for therapeutic purposes in seven states, have brought this debate back into focus in the United States. This report explores the costs and consequences of the recent crackdown on marijuana use in the state of Maryland. After briefly summarizing the nature of the state's marijuana problem it describes who is arrested; how many are incarcerated; whether there is evidence of disparate impact on minorities; who goes into treatment; and what services they receive. It attempts to assess how marijuana enforcement fits into policing generally and the extent to which marijuana treatment-seeking is primarily a means for avoiding criminal justice sanctions. Finally it offers an overall assessment, relying on national and international analyses, of the consequences of the increase in enforcement. Marijuana use has increased substantially among youth; whereas in 1992 15 percent of Montgomery County 12 th graders reported using marijuana in the previous 12 months, in 1998 36 percent reported such use. National data suggest that use by those over age 25 declined moderately. For adolescents aged 12 to17, the number of marijuana-related admissions to hospital emergency departments in Baltimore rose from 37 to 493 between 1991 and 1998. However, most of those admissions involved use of another drug as well; the numbers admitted for marijuana alone, though sharply increased, remained very modest. Most adolescents who use marijuana do not go on to more dangerous drugs and they quit using marijuana of their …