BALTIMORE — The brand new yr comes with new legal guidelines.

The yr 2023 comes with adjustments that focus on marijuana and the minimal wage in Maryland.

This contains the quantity of pot an individual can legally possess, the leisure use of marijuana, and expunging sure instances from one’s file.

State lawmakers shall be in command of organising the state’s leisure marijuana trade.

Retail gross sales will fall beneath guidelines and rules when the legislation goes into impact in July.

However for now, sure penalties for possession are being diminished.

“I feel it is about time,” Baltimore resident Theresa Brown stated.

On this case, the time was midnight. On Jan. 1, 2023, that is when the legal guidelines went into impact.

The possession of as much as 2.5 ounces of marijuana will now not levy a prison cost.

As a substitute, an individual must pay a civil penalty of $250.

The legislation additionally creates a course of for expunging all instances through which possession of fewer than 10 grams of hashish is the one cost, together with extra expungement provisions, in keeping with the Maryland Medical Hashish Fee.   

“I had quite a lot of arrests after I was youthful for possession,” Baltimore resident Dave Nyquist stated. “It is nonetheless there. I am in my 40s now however it’s nonetheless there. I am nonetheless a prison for one thing that should not be criminalized.”

The authorized use of leisure marijuana in Maryland can also be across the nook.

After about 65% of voters stated “sure” on the November poll.

On July 1, people who find themselves 21 years outdated and older shall be allowed to own as much as one and a half ounces of weed.

Within the meantime, the Maryland Common Meeting will provide you with a regulatory framework.

“I am a longtime marijuana person and I by no means anticipated to have the ability to vote for it in my lifetime,” Nyquist stated. “It was historic.”

One other change that got here with the beginning of the brand new yr is the minimal wage in Maryland.

The state’s minimal wage rose $0.75 Sunday from $12.50 an hour to $13.25 an hour for corporations with 15 or extra workers.

Firms with fewer than 14 workers could have a barely decrease minimal wage threshold. The present $12.20 per hour minimal wage for these employers will enhance to $12.80.

The minimal wage is ready to extend yearly, reaching $15 an hour by 2025 after the Maryland Common Meeting vetoed Governor Larry Hogan’s vote on the matter in 2019. 

“Typically, if extra individuals have cash of their pocket, particularly with inflation, I feel it is a good factor,” Baltimore resident Alex Pessell.

Nonetheless, different individuals don’t really feel like that quantity is sufficient.

“It is unhappy as a result of they cannot pay their lease,” Baltimore resident Theresa Brown. “The lease goes up, the meals goes up, the whole lot goes up. The fuel. It is onerous to reside.”