Maryland Governor To Issue Mass Pardon to More Than 100,000 Marijuana Offenders
Democratic Maryland Gov. Wes Moore will issue a blanket pardon for low-level marijuana convictions in the state today, a move that the governor’s office estimates will clear the records of an estimated 100,000 people.
Moore’s office claims it is the largest mass pardon by a state related to marijuana, and the first to include offenses for the possession of paraphernalia as well. Maryland legalized recreational marijuana last year after voters approved a 2022 constitutional amendment by 67 percent.
Moore says the pardons are an effort to remove the burdens of felony convictions, such as barriers to employment and housing, which have fallen particularly hard on minority neighborhoods that were targets of the drug war.Â
“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 with The Washington Post, which first reported the story. “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.”
According to Moore’s office, Maryland located every conviction or guilty plea in the state’s electronic court records system for simple marijuana possession or possession with intent to use drug paraphernalia, adding up to around 175,000 cases, and will issue automatic pardons, including in cases where the offender is dead.
Nine other states have issued large-scale clemency orders for old marijuana offenses, and two dozen others have launched expungement campaigns, resulting in the expungement or sealing of 2 million marijuana-related cases since 2018, according to the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML). Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey announced a similar blanket pardon for misdemeanor marijuana possession convictions in March, and former Oregon Gov. Kate Brown announced in 2022 that she would pa
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