Maryland Gov. Wes Moore will issue a mass pardon of more than 175,000 marijuana convictions, one of the nation’s most sweeping acts of clemency involving a drug now in widespread recreational use, reported the Washington Post.
The pardons will forgive low-level marijuana
possession charges for an estimated 100,000 people in what the Democratic
governor said is a step to heal decades of social and economic injustice that
disproportionately harms Black and Brown people. Moore noted criminal records
have been used to deny housing, employment and education, holding people and
their families back long after their sentences have been served.
“I’m ecstatic that we have a real opportunity with
what I’m signing to right a lot of historical wrongs,” Moore said in an
interview. “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 called the scope of his pardons “the most
far-reaching and aggressive” executive action among officials nationwide who
have sought to unwind criminal justice inequities with the growing legalization
of marijuana. Nine other states and multiple cities have pardoned hundreds of thousands of old marijuana convictions in
recent years, according to the National Organization for the Reform of
Marijuana Laws. Legalized marijuana markets reap billions in revenue for state governments each year,
and polls show public sentiment on the drug has also turned — with more people
both embracing cannabis use and repudiating racial disparities exacerbated by
the War on Drugs.
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