The governor of Maryland has issued another mass pardon for people with past marijuana possession convictions, granting clemency to about 7,000 more people on the holiday Juneteenth that commemorates the end of slavery.
Gov. Wes Moore (D) has been one of the most proactive governors when it comes to cannabis pardons since his state enacted legalization, stressing the need to right the wrongs of prohibition through executive action.
This latest round follows a historic mass clemency action Moore took last year, when he pardoned more than 175,000 convictions for low-level cannabis and paraphernalia offenses.
The governor’s new executive order, which he signed at the Bethel AME Church on Thursday, covers 6,938 people who the state judiciary didn’t identify in the initial round due to technical complications.
“These cases were not included in the initial pardon because they were coded incorrectly, and thus, were not found in the Judiciary’s initial searches of their data,” a spokesperson for the governor’s office said. “The Judiciary recently located these cases when researching their data to determine how best to implement the Expungement Reform Act.”
In a video posted on Facebook on Thursday, the governor said “Juneteenth reminds us of the shoulders we stand on—and our responsibility to hand off this country better than we found it.”
He didn’t describe the latest executive order, but he added that he was “proud to issue the largest state pardon in our nation’s history—pardoning 175,000 Maryland convictions for cannabis possession” last year.
In a separate interview with TheGrio, Moore said the “deeply complicated” history of his state and of the country is a motivator to act on reform.
“The history and inequity of this country—it runs deep,” he said. “That should also serve as fuel and motivation—as an understanding of why we can’t wait. Why we need action.”
“Even after Maryland legalized and made a recreational cannabis market, I had people in my state who could not get a barber’s license or could not get a student loan, or couldn’t get a home loan because of a misdemeanor cannabis conviction that took place in the 1980s,” Moore said.
“As chief executive, as a governor, I have the authority to be able to right so many of these historical wrongs, knowing that these pardons are going to have a disproportionate impact on African Americans, because the impact that we’ve seen on this war has been a war oftentimes on Black communities.”
Adrian Rocha, policy director for the Last Prisoner Project, praised Moore’s latest action, saying it affirms a “commitment to his promise to build a state and society that is more equitable, more just and leaves no one behind.”
“States across the country should be emboldened to follow Moore’s lead,” he said.
In February, the governor also touted in his State of the State address legislation that would expand opportunities for people to have their criminal records for marijuana expunged, allowing people who violated terms of their parole or probation to petition courts to erase those records.
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Meanwhile, in April, Moore signed a series of cannabis bills, including one that will require state officials to automatically shield records for low-level marijuana convictions that have been pardoned from public access, and to more broadly expand expungement eligibility for certain other offenses.
He further signed off on legislation that will allow adults to manufacture marijuana edibles and concentrates for personal use, as well as a measure dealing with rules around cannabis consumption lounges.
Separately, the Maryland Senate also passed a measure this session to protect for fire and rescue workers from being penalized for off-duty use of medical marijuana, though it did not advance through the House.
Employers could not “discipline, discharge, or otherwise discriminate against the fire and rescue public safety employee with respect to the employee’s compensation, terms, conditions, or privileges of employment” based solely on a positive screening for THC metabolites under the legislation.
In January, officials in Maryland’s most populous county separately said they were moving to loosen marijuana policies for would-be police officers in an effort to boost recruitment amid a staffing shortage.
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