By: Ella Haber

To contact this photographer email Muse Newspaper at musebsa@bsfa.org.

By: Lucy Garcia

November is a month that has been burned into the heads of politicians and United States citizens alike for one particular reason: Voting. In November of 2022, Maryland residents voted on things like the renaming of the Courts of Appeal and Howard County’s Orphan Court. However, there was one specific question on the ballot that the U.S. has been debating for a long while: the legalization of marijuana.

The topic of the Marijuana Legalization Amendment was question number 4 on the November Maryland ballot. A simple “yes” supported legalizing marijuana for adults 21 or older beginning in July 2023, as well as “directing the Maryland State Legislature to pass laws for the use, distribution, regulation, and taxation of marijuana.” When the final votes were counted, 32.8% voted no, approximately 635,572 people, while 67.2% voted yes, approximately 1,302,161 people.

Despite the legalization of marijuana being approved, there are still rules applied to the possession of cannabis. Starting July 1st of 2023, personal possession of up to 1.5 ounces of marijuana will be allowed for those 21 and older. Possession above 1.5 ounces but lower than 2.5 ounces may be punishable by a $250 fine. Anything above 2.5 can be punishable to up to 6 months in jail or a fine of 1,000 dollars. Smoking marijuana in public may be punishable by up to $250, but smoking in the comfort of your own home is perfectly legal. Adults may grow or possess up to 2 cannabis plants out of the public eye, nevertheless, selling marijuana without a license is still against the law and punishable by up to 3 years in jail, or a fine up to $5,000. 

But with all these rules and regulations, the question still remains. What actually is marijuana?

According to the Alcohol and Drug Foundation, cannabis, more commonly known as marijuana, weed, or pot, is a cannabinoid drug that’s made from the dry flowers of Cannabis Sativa. The most common ways to use or consume marijuana include smoking, vaporization, and eating.

While the effects of cannabis depend on the amount taken, the responses of cannabis may include but are not excluded to: feelings of euphoria and/or relaxation, increased appetite, increased laughter, increased sociability, and dry mouth. 

However, just like any other drug, weed can become risky depending on how much is used and in what manner. Some long term effects could include a dependency on marijuana, building tolerance to marijuana, and in some cases, reduced cognitive thinking. If cannabis is being smoked, other effects may be sore throat, bronchitis, asthma, and if smoked with tobacco, cancer. 

The argument that marijuana should be legal in the US is one that has been around since the drug was first used. It has been the topic of many debates, as well as one of the anchors for President Joe Biden’s presidential campaign, where he assured his voters that it was an issue he planned to solve if elected into office, and that is precisely what he did.

In October of 2022, President Biden announced that he would begin the process of pardoning those convicted of simple marijuana possession offenses under federal law and DC statute.

This announcement, made about one month before midterm elections, was the beginning of 3 steps that President Biden plans on taking to end the “failed approach” of marijuana in the United States. Firstly, President Biden plans on pardoning those who have been arrested due to cannabis ownership. 

“No one should be in jail just for using or possessing marijuana,” Expressed President Biden in a statement from the White House regarding the marijuana reform.

The second step that President Biden is taking is encouraging state governors to follow in his footsteps. President Biden urges them to do the same by pardoning marijuana offenses on a state level. 

“Just as no one should be in a Federal prison solely due to the possession of marijuana, no one should be in a local jail or state prison for that reason, either,” President Biden explained. 

This plan will ultimately end up pardoning around 6,500 people who have been convicted between 1992 and 2021, as shown in data collected by the US Sentencing Commission. Even though the majority, if not all of these people are not currently in federal prison, these pardons still have the ability to help with restrictions placed due to the stain on their criminal records. These obstacles could range from public benefits, opportunities for education, employment barriers, and, in some states, even voting rights. 

The incarceration rate for marijuana users, like many other incarceration rates, is skewed toward people of color. Despite the rates of marijuana use between POC and white people being akin, the average arrest rate for POC is significantly higher. 

“And while white and Black and brown people use marijuana at similar rates, Black and brown people have been arrested, prosecuted, and convicted at disproportionate rates.” Stated President Biden. 

In a study done in 2020 by the American Civil Liberties Union, it is shown that in the state of Maryland, Black people are 2.1 times more likely to be arrested for marijuana than white people, compared to the national average of 3.64. With these pardons, Black, brown, Latino/Latina, and indigenous lives will cease to be upended by rates for “conduct that many states no longer prohibit.”

The third and final step that President Biden plans on taking is asking both the Secretary of Health and Human Services and the Attorney General to initiate the review of how marijuana is viewed under federal law. Under federal law, marijuana is classified as a Schedule 1 drug in the Controlled Substances Act. This is the same level that heroin and LSD are classified as, as well as higher than fentanyl and methamphetamine, despite these substances being substantially more dangerous and addictive.

 “We classify marijuana at the same level as heroin – and more serious than fentanyl. It makes no sense,” President Biden concluded. 

Regardless of the changes happening around marijuana for those over 21, rules, regulations, and laws for minor marijuana use stay the same. 

But now that Maryland voters passed the referendum, a new companion bill is being sent out regarding the logistics of the regulation process, specific timing, and marijuana’s use in the medical field. There are sure to be announcements with more details about this new bill later in 2023. Due to the taxation and distribution of marijuana still being up in the air, it is unlikely that dispensaries will be selling products anytime soon in the next 7 months. But for now, it’s time to sit back and watch the bud-ding act grow.

To contact this writer, email Muse Newspaper at musebsa@bsfa.org.

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Headline photo caption:

Photo by Business Insider, “States where cannabis is legal,” Nov 9 2022

By: Micah Berger-Sollod

Baltimore has been the site of many hit TV shows, such as The Wire and We Own This City. Recently, Alma Har’el’s directed Lady in the Lake has begun filming here. Set in 1960s Baltimore, an unsolved murder pushed Jewish housewife Maddie Swartz to reinvent her life as an investigative journalist. It’s based on Laura Lipman’s famous book of the same name. While the release date is not yet known, the show has been filming since April and is set to release on Apple TV.

Alma Har’el, an Israeli film director, is both directing and writing the show. She is working with Endeavor Content, a film and entertainment studio working out of Los Angeles. The TV show involves many big names in the film industry, including Natalie Portman and Baltimore School for the Arts alumnus Moses Ingram. While the film brings lots of excitement to Baltimore’s arts scene, a fake claim of extortion and mounting heat from locals threatens the show’s support. No matter the opinion, most agree that Lady in the Lake is one of the biggest events in Baltimore’s entertainment industry in a long time.

Laura Lipman’s novel tells the story of a Jewish housewife and a Black bartender who show the deeply embedded institutions of racism underneath Baltimore’s investigative journalism. It follows two murders, one is of a White Jewish woman who is heavily publicized, and the other of a Black woman who is only mentioned by African American newspapers. The book is actually based on two murders from Laura Lipman’s childhood.

Filming began smoothly with shooting at locations all over the city. Many shooting locations are in  Jewish communities in Baltimore, including many synagogues such as Beth Am and Chizuk Amuno Congregation. Some Jewish community leaders such as Rabbi Daniel Burg have been asked to help facilitate the proper use of sensitive locations like these. But the story itself is not the only dramatic part of this TV show.

In August of 2022 Lady in the Lake producers claimed that during a shoot Downtown, a group of men approached them and demanded $50,000, or they would shoot someone. This was reported by a spokesperson for the Baltimore Police Department and is easily classified as extortion.

“Friday afternoon, on the Baltimore set of our production Lady in the Lake, prior to the arrival of the cast and crew, per their call time, a driver on our production crew was confronted by two men, one of whom brandished a gun directed at our driver, and then they fled the location. We are working with the Baltimore Police Department as the investigation is ongoing,” the studio behind the series, Endeavor Content, said in a statement. After temporarily pausing filming, details about the crime became murkier.

Police then spoke with the private security supervisor, and she claimed they actually asked for just $4,000 and only threatened to shoot the gun in the air. The private security supervisor then retracted all claims on the incident, and later that day police declared it a false report.

“There were some threats made, I do know that for a fact,” said Venneith McCormick, a business owner. “There are some vendors up there by Lexington Market who think that they should’ve been paid because they’re vendors on the street.” McCormick owns a business that was taken over temporarily by the production company for shooting purposes, and while compensated he estimates he has lost up to $5,000. After the police declared it a false report, Endeavor Content went silent.

Thiru Vignarajah, a community leader, had this to say “Every time we hear these fabricated stories about violence in Baltimore, it tells the world that this is not perhaps a place to do business [or] to bring your families, and that hurts all of us.”

Al Hathaway, a community activist, claimed it was a slap in the face to the city and a blatant act of fear-mongering. 

Filming for the series has now continued and despite the fake extortion incident, there is still a lot of support for the series among the Baltimore community. On the 22nd of October Moses Ingram and many other members of the Lady of the Lake cast and crew came to BSA and hosted a panel discussion. Nearly 20 different students and parents joined BSA faculty to discuss all sorts of parts of the creative process and experiences from the industry. The crew included BSA alumni Ron Jeffries and Moses Ingram.

Back in March of 2021, Natalie Portman and Lupita Nyong’o were set to star in the show. However, in May of 2022 Nyong’o exited the series and was replaced with Moses Ingram in June. Other names like Noah Jupe, Mike Epps, and Bryon Bowers were added in July. According to the production team filming is nearly done but a release date has not been set.

To contact this writer, email Muse Newspaper at musebsa@bsfa.org.

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Headline photo caption:

A set from The Wire in Baltimore. Photo courtesy of J. M. Giordano.