Tens of thousands of Marylanders receive pardons for marijuana convictions

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) — Maryland Governor Wes Moore ordered more than 175,000 pardons for marijuana convictions on Monday, saying the “most sweeping state-level pardon in any state” will help reverse harms from the past caused by the war on drugs.

During a news conference, Moore said the executive order will affect “tens of thousands of Marylanders” convicted of misdemeanours. Some may have had more than one conviction pardoned through the process.

“We are taking actions that are intentional, that are sweeping and unapologetic, and this is the largest such action in our nation's history,” Moore, a Democrat, said.

Though the pardons will not result in anyone being released from incarceration — and nor will they result in having past convictions automatically expunged from a person's background check — advocates praised the move as a way of removing barriers to housing, employment, or educational opportunities based on convictions for conduct that is no longer illegal.

Heather Warnken, executive director of the University of Baltimore School of Law Center for Criminal Justice Reform, described the pardons as “a win for thousands of Marylanders getting a fresh start to pursue education, employment, and other forms of economic opportunity without the stain of a criminal conviction.”

Recreational cannabis was legalised in Maryland in 2023 after voters approved a constitutional amendment in 2022 with 67% of the vote. Maryland decriminalised possession of personal use amounts of cannabis on January 1, 2023.

Now, 24 states and the District of Columbia have legalised recreational cannabis.

“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.

Moore said “legalisation does not turn back the clock on decades of harm that was caused by this war on drugs.”

He continued: “It doesn't erase the fact that black Marylanders were three times more likely to be arrested for cannabis than white Marylanders before legalisation. It doesn't erase the fact that having a conviction on your record means a harder time with everything, everything, from housing, to employment to education.”

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