Driving while high a primary concern for local law enforcement ahead of July 1st
MARYLAND – Recreational adult use marijuana is coming to Maryland on July 1st.
Rules To Follow
It will be up to Marylanders to make their own individual choices about whether or not to use cannabis recreationally. However, there are still strict laws they must follow.
You must be at least 21 years old to purchase and consume cannabis, and smoking in public is not allowed. Marylanders will only be able to purchase and possess up to 1.5 ounces of marijuana at a time.
And when it comes to driving while high, Worcester County Sheriff Matt Crisafulli says don’t even think about it; That’s still illegal, too.
“We implore people to look at this like alcohol. If you are going to ingest cannabis, don’t get behind the wheel of a motor vehicle. You’re putting yourself in danger, and you’re putting other people in danger,” said Sheriff Crisafulli. “Just because it’s legal, doesn’t mean you can smoke and drive. That’s where our concern is going to be, that we’re going to see an increased number in vehicle-related crashes, concerning cannabis.”
Preparing For Change
Sheriff Crisafulli says his deputies have been undergoing training to detect marijuana impairment.
“Until we get all of our deputies trained, if we have probable cause to believe that someone is operating a motor vehicle under the influence of cannabis, then we would have to contact the drug identification expert to come out to the scene, to further test that driver for impairment,” said Sheriff Crisafulli. “It is a little bit more of a challenge here in a rural area. It’s not where there’s a drug recognition expert on every shift, or there’s not a drug recognition expert in every agency, particularly.”
Another hurdle that recreational marijuana legalization is presenting, says Sheriff Crisafulli, is the removal of marijuana odor-related probable cause searches.
“A lot of the time, when we would have probable cause searches for cannabis, it opened the door for us, for other types of crime, such as illegal weapons, other types of narcotics,” said Sheriff Crisafulli. “We’re just going to have to be resilient and learn with these changes. They’re just going to have to make sure that they really use their senses as they’re pulling vehicles over, and look for other signs of crime to keep our community safe.”
Main Message: Safety
As July 1st approaches, Sheriff Crisafulli says his agency has been looking to other states where legalization has already happened, for guidance. “People need to be educated. This isn’t something where they’re going to be able to go out and do this at their own free will. There are rules that are going to be regulating the use of this,” he said.
Sheriff Crisafulli says his main message to Marylanders, is this:
“Make sure that you have a designated driver, make sure that you’re not operating motor vehicles under the influence of this,” said Sheriff Crisafulli. “It does impair your ability to operate a motor vehicle, to think quickly, to make quick decisions, to stop quickly.”
