Baltimore’s $35M Reparations Fund Mess
Baltimore built a $35 million pot of money from cannabis taxes. It was meant to repair damage from the War on Drugs. Instead, hardly any of it has reached the people it was supposed to help.
The money sits. The reason is simple. Folks are fighting over who controls it.
The Baltimore Beat reports:
Baltimore has received more than $35 million in cannabis reparations money, but none of it has reached residents
In the three years since Maryland legalized recreational cannabis, Baltimore has received more than $35 million in tax revenue to reinvest in communities devastated by the War on Drugs. To date, not a single dollar has reached the people it was meant to help, and the first round of funding may still be a year away.
At the center of the delay is an escalating dispute over who controls the money: City Hall or the Baltimore Community Reinvestment and Reparations Commission, the 17-member body established in November 2024 to oversee how the funds are distributed. City Hall says the mayor has final say, while commissioners maintain the body was created to independently manage the funds.
That holdup means that while Maryland’s legalization of cannabis in 2023 led to over $1.1 billion in sales over the following year alone, even as Black communities continue to be targeted by the drug war, none of it has helped repair that damage…
State Senator Mary Washington, who sponsored SB0894, told the Beat that the law was not intended to give local elected officials control over how the money is spent, and argued Baltimore City’s interpretation is out of step with how the law has been understood elsewhere in Maryland.
“The money was never intended to be a slush fund for a county executive or mayor,” she said. Instead, she said, it was meant to reinvest in communities impacted by the War on Drugs and mass incarceration, which continue to face disparities in homeownership, wealth-building, and life expectancy.
So here we are. Big dollars. Big promises. Zero payouts. Meanwhile, officials argue about paperwork and control. That argument looks a lot like politics winning and people losing.
This was supposed to be targeted help. Small businesses, housing aid, job programs — real stuff that can change lives. Instead, power grabs and legal questions slow everything down. Residents who were promised relief are left waiting. That’s embarrassing and avoidable.
For now, count on delays. Expect more fights. And hope someone remembers why the money was collected in the first place: to help people hurt by decades of drug policy, not to feed a political tug-of-war.