Ten years ago marijuana first became legal in parts of the United States after voters in Washington and Colorado approved recreational cannabis. Over the last decade an additional 17 states and the District of Columbia all followed suit and voted to legalize marijuana use for adults. Maryland lawmakers have been…
On October 1 a host of new laws took effect in Maryland, though most of these laws do not modify existing criminal laws or procedure. There are however two laws that will impact on our state’s criminal justice system. The first new law prohibits a spouse from invoking the marital…
A current member of the Maryland House of Delegates was recently charged with numerous offenses according to a criminal information that was filed in the Circuit Court for Anne Arundel County. The information, which is a charging document filed by a state prosecutor, alleges that the lawmaker committed misconduct in…
The legalization of marijuana in Maryland is now officially in the hands of the voters, as the cannabis reform bill became law at the recent close of the 2022 legislative session in Annapolis. Rather than endorse the bill with his signature, the governor simply let it take effect without a…
The 2022 Maryland legislative session has come to a close, and now the Governor must decide the fate of numerous bills that passed the House and Senate. In total there were 140 enacted bills this year, but less than 20 were criminal law related. There will be no groundbreaking criminal…
In 2016 Maryland lawmakers passed Noah’s Law, which mandated the installation of engine interlock devices for anyone convicted of DUI. The law also significantly increased administrative driver’s license suspensions for those who either refused to take a breathalyzer test or for those who tested over the legal limit of .08. …
The Maryland House of Delegates has done its part to assure that Maryland will legalize the recreational use of marijuana in the near future, and now the matter is in the hands of the Senate. Back in December we posted about House Bill 1 that was pre-filed before the 2022…
This past week in Annapolis a sweeping juvenile justice reform bill passed in the Maryland Senate, and now the bill heads to the House for debate. The 23-page bill proposes numerous modifications to the existing juvenile justice system, but perhaps the most noteworthy is the section that would eliminate most…
There was significant movement last week in highly publicized state measures to curb the circulation of unserialized firearms commonly known as ghost guns. Both the House and Senate preliminarily approved legislation that would eventually ban the sale and ownership of the untraceable firearms in Maryland. These untraceable guns have been…
The 2022 Maryland legislative session is still a few weeks away from commencing, but there is already a proposed bill on the books. House Bill 1 was pre-filed last week by a state delegate from Baltimore City, who is also the chairman of the state’s cannabis workgroup that was formed…