Advocates urge council not to strip decision-making from cannabis reinvestment board

Community members and civil-rights advocates told the council that proposed changes to the Cannabis Reinvestment and Restoration Board would undermine the body’s purpose of returning reparative dollars to communities harmed by the war on drugs. “CB 93 would move us in the opposite direction,” Yanneth Emmanuel Pope, policy director with the ACLU of Maryland, said, arguing the bill “would reduce the board largely to an advisory body while shifting decision making authority back to the county council.”

Crystal Carpenter, chair of the Cannabis Reinvestment and Restoration Board, asked council members to sponsor board members’ attendance at a state implementation conference and to host town halls to ensure broad public input before funding recommendations are finalized. Multiple speakers called for more time and for statutory guardrails to preserve community-led decision-making. Several speakers urged the council to send CB 93 back to committee for amendment or to withdraw it; council members acknowledged the concerns and recorded committee actions on the bill.