HB413 makes several changes to Maryland’s criminal laws covering controlled dangerous substances and firearms. On the drug side, it creates a narrow exception allowing adults age 21 or older to make a personal-use amount of cannabis products or concentrated cannabis at a private residence for personal use or adult sharing, so long as no volatile solvent is used. It also defines and permits “adult sharing” of personal-use cannabis without payment, while preserving prohibitions on commercial distribution and intent to distribute beyond the personal-use threshold.
The bill also increases penalties for certain large-scale drug offenses and firearm offenses. It makes manufacturing, distributing, dispensing, or possessing specified large quantities of controlled dangerous substances a felony, and it changes the cannabis-related “volume dealer” and “drug kingpin” penalties, including reducing the cannabis kingpin penalty from the prior mandatory minimum structure to a felony punishable by up to 20 years. On the firearms side, it upgrades several offenses from misdemeanors to felonies, including possession or trafficking of stolen regulated firearms, unlawful transport of regulated firearms into the state for trafficking, unlawful manufacture or sale of handguns not on the handgun roster, and certain violations involving unserialized or improperly marked firearms and unfinished frames or receivers.
HB413 also creates two sentence-modification pathways for people serving older mandatory minimum sentences. One provision applies to certain cocaine base cases involving less than 448 grams, and another applies to cannabis-related mandatory minimum sentences imposed on or before September 30, 2025. In both instances, eligible incarcerated people may petition the court to reduce the sentence under specified standards, with notice to the State’s Attorney and a hearing required. These provisions are time-limited and include restrictions on repeat filings.
The bill’s impact on state law is broad: it revises definitions in the Criminal Law Article, adds new exceptions for limited cannabis manufacturing and sharing, increases penalties for major drug and firearms offenses, and creates new resentencing mechanisms for some older drug sentences. It also amends the Public Safety Article to strengthen enforcement against stolen, trafficked, and unserialized firearms and to treat more conduct as felony-level criminal activity.
The overall sentiment reflected in the vote history appears generally supportive, with the bill passing both chambers despite one rejected floor amendment. The recorded votes show substantial majorities for third reading in both chambers, suggesting broad legislative backing for the bill’s combined approach of limited cannabis decriminalization for personal use, tougher penalties for large-scale drug and gun offenses, and targeted sentence relief for some prior convictions. The main point of contention appears to have been the floor amendment, which was rejected, indicating some disagreement over the bill’s final scope or penalties, though the final bill still advanced comfortably.
HB413 amends the Criminal Law and Public Safety Articles to create a limited home-manufacturing exception for cannabis, define and protect adult sharing of personal-use cannabis, raise penalties for large-quantity drug offenses, and reclassify several firearms offenses as felonies. It also adds new sentence-modification provisions for certain older mandatory minimum drug sentences, including cannabis and cocaine base cases, allowing eligible incarcerated people to seek reduction under specified conditions. The bill takes effect October 1, 2025.
The bill appears to have received generally favorable treatment in the General Assembly, as reflected by strong third-reading passage in both chambers. The vote history suggests bipartisan or at least broad support for the bill’s mix of cannabis policy refinement, tougher enforcement against major trafficking and firearms offenses, and limited retroactive sentence relief. The rejection of one floor amendment indicates some disagreement, but not enough to derail final passage.
The most notable contention appears to have centered on the bill’s exact penalty structure and scope, as shown by the rejected floor amendment. Substantively, the bill balances competing policy goals: it loosens rules for limited personal cannabis production and adult sharing while simultaneously increasing penalties for large-scale drug trafficking and several firearms offenses. The sentence-modification provisions may also have been a point of debate because they open a path for resentencing in older mandatory minimum cases, but only under narrow eligibility and procedural limits.