Maryland Gov. Wes Moore (D) will pardon more than 175,000 low-level marijuana convictions on Monday, one of the nation’s largest acts of mass clemency, The Washington Post reported.
“I’m ecstatic that we have a real opportunity with what I’m signing to right a lot of historical wrongs,” Moore told the Post on Sunday night, adding his action will help undo decades of harm toward people of color. “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.”
The pardon is meant to coincide with this week’s Juneteenth holiday. Full data of those who will be pardoned will be announced at an event on Monday, although the Post said upwards of 100,000 people could benefit from the act.
The move comes amid ongoing efforts to legalize marijuana nationwide, and Moore described the pardon as one of the most “far-reaching and aggressive” efforts to do so thus far. Only Massachusetts has issued a pardon on a similar scale after Gov. Maura Healey (D) did so in March. Her action could ultimately help hundreds of thousands of people.
Maryland legalized recreational use of marijuana on July 1, 2023, becoming one of 23 states, as well as Washington D.C., to do so.
Moore’s action will automatically forgive all misdemeanor possession charges the state is able to find in its electronic database, the Post reports, as well as every misdemeanor paraphernalia charge linked to use or possession of the drug. Those with older convictions only available on paper records will be able to apply for a pardon as well.
The governor added that such convictions have been used to deny people housing and employment benefits, even after sentences have been served. And those charges have disproportionally been leveled against communities of color.
The state’s attorney general, Anthony Brown (D), voiced his support for the pardon on Sunday in a statement to the Post.
“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 told the publication. “We are arrested and convicted at higher rates for possession and use of marijuana when the rate at which we used it was no different than any other category of people.”
