Photo via event livestream
On Monday, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore pardoned more than 175,000 convictions related to cannabis possession and cannabis paraphernalia.
“This is about changing how both government and society view those who have been walled off from opportunity because of broken and uneven policies,” Moore said in an announcement Monday morning.
“We cannot celebrate the benefits of legalization if we do not address the consequences of criminalization,” he said.
Moore said his executive order is the most sweeping state-level pardon in any state in American history.
Maryland legalized recreational cannabis last year on July 1, 2023. Moore said people who were arrested for cannabis “three or four or 40 years ago” still carry those convictions on their records.
The governor will pardon Marylanders who have been convicted for misdemeanor possession of cannabis, as well as Marylanders convicted of certain misdemeanor possession crimes of paraphernalia.
Moore noted, “Legalization does not turn back the clock on decades of harm that was caused by this war on drugs.”
He said nearly half of all drug arrests in Maryland during the early 2000s were for cannabis, and that before legalization, Black Marylanders were three times more likely to be arrested for cannabis than white Marylanders.
According to Moore, this will not be the last step forward.
“We are going to use every lever at our disposal — pardons, executive orders, the budget, working with legislative partners, anything and everything to make every day matter.”
“Undoing decades of harm cannot happen in a day, but we’re going to keep up the work, we’re going to keep up the pace, we’re going to do it together.”
