On Monday, Maryland Governor Wes Moore granted a “historic” pardon for over 175,000 marijuana convictions. This was the governor’s first pardon since the state legalized marijuana for recreational use last year.
The first-term Democratic governor stated on Monday, “We cannot celebrate the benefits of legalization if we do not address the consequences of criminalization.”
In 24 states, cannabis is authorized for recreational use and in 38 states for medical use. A constitutional amendment legalizing marijuana for recreational use was approved by Maryland voters in 2022 and went into effect in July of the same year.
The governor’s office referred to it as “the most sweeping state-level pardon in any state in American history” on social media on Monday.
With Moore’s automatic pardon, over 150,000 misdemeanor convictions for possession of drug paraphernalia and over 18,000 convictions for possession with intent to use would be dismissed, including those involving deceased individuals.
Although the pardons apply to those who were charged prior to January 1st of last year, no one will be released from prison as a result of them.
Over the past few years, states and the federal government have been gradually legalizing marijuana or lowering the penalties associated with it, despite contradictory laws and shifting public opinion.
According to a November 2018 Gallup poll, grassroots support for legalizing marijuana in the United States is at an all-time high of 70%.
Nine more states have now followed President Joe Biden’s lead and pardoned individuals for federal marijuana convictions. Governors were also asked to follow suit at the state level.
The majority of Moore’s pardons—roughly twenty-three percent—will go to Baltimore. Moore cited decades of social and economic injustice in relation to low-level offenders’ marijuana convictions.
In a statement, Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott stated that Moore’s pardon “is a step towards healing” in light of the “visceral and tangible” effects that “the war on drugs has had” on the city.
“We still see and feel the wounds every day in the lives, families, and communities that were disrupted and destroyed,” the mayor stated. “For those receiving the pardons — which includes thousands upon thousands of Baltimoreans — it will be life changing.”
On Monday, however, Moore conceded that legalization “does not erase the fact that nearly half of all drug arrests in Maryland during the early 2000s were for cannabis” or “turn back the clock on decades of harm that was caused by this war on drugs.”
In a recent interview with the Washington Post, Moore stated, “I’m ecstatic that we have a real opportunity with what I’m signing to right a lot of historical wrongs,” prior to Monday’s broad pardon.
“If you want to be able to create inclusive economic growth, it means you have to start removing these barriers that continue to disproportionately sit on communities of color,” he stated at the time.
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In April, the federal Drug Enforcement Administration decided to reclassify marijuana, recognizing that its users face a moderate to low risk by taking it out of the same category as heroin and other lethal substances.
The governor’s office did point out that the charge will still show up on the individual’s criminal record, even though a pardon is not the same as a criminal record erasure, which is an additional step.
Anthony Brown, the attorney general for Maryland, referred to it as “a momentous day” and stated that it was “significant for several reasons.”
“To start with, it’s long overdue,” stated Brown, a former congressman and lieutenant governor of the state. Moore, he continued, made “bold and decisive action.”
The Democratic attorney general of Maryland declared, “As a nation, we’ve taken far too long to correct the injustices of a system that is supposed to be just for everyone.”
