Gov. Wes Moore Set To Pardon 175,000 People Convicted Of Marijuana Charges
Source: Andrew Harnik / Getty
According to AP, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore plans to issue 175,000 pardons for marijuana convictions. Moore is scheduled to sign the executive order on Monday that will free low-level marijuana possession offenders for more than 100,000 people.
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“I’m ecstatic that we have a real opportunity with what I’m signing to right a lot of historical wrongs,” Moore told AP. “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.”
Recreational cannabis has been legal in Maryland since 2023. Neighboring states such as Delaware, Virginia and New Jersey have all legalized recreational marijuana. There are 24 other states as well as the District of Columbia that have legalized recreational marijuana.
Moore says criminal records have commonly been used to deny housing, employment and education and hopes the pardons will help change that.
“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,” Moore told the Washington Post “certainly long overdue as a nation” and “a racial equity issue.”
Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown, also told the Post that the pardons were “certainly long overdue as a nation” and “a racial equity issue.”
Source: The Washington Post / Getty
“While the pardons will extend to anyone and everyone with a misdemeanor conviction for the possession of marijuana or paraphernalia, this unequivocally, without any doubt or reservation, disproportionately impacts — in a good way — Black and Brown Marylanders,” Brown said.
The pardons will happen around the same time the nation celebrates the Juneteenth holiday, commemorating the end of slavery in the United States.
Marijuana convictions coupled with the American prison system have perpetuated modern-day slavery in the form of a jail cell.
According to studies, Black Americans are arrested for violating marijuana possession laws at nearly four times the rates of white Americans, yet both consume marijuana at roughly the same rates.
In 2022, President Biden issued a mass pardon of federal marijuana convictions, pardoning more than 6,500 people. He also urged Governors to follow in his footsteps.
As more states legalize marijuana, hopefully, more pardons will follow.
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