Maryland Pardons 175,000 Marijuana Misdemeanor Convictions
Maryland prisoners with misdemeanor marijuana convictions had them erased as of June 18, 2024, when Gov. Wes Moore (D) issued pardons for every state misdemeanor conviction for possession of pot or related paraphernalia.
The pardons will not release any prisoners; the misdemeanor convictions carried short sentences that have all now expired, since voters overwhelmingly approved a 2022 constitutional amendment to legalize recreational marijuana and the state stopped such prosecutions.
Moore framed his move as an effort to redress the barriers such convictions erect when seeking housing and employment—discrimination that falls disproportionately on communities of color because nonwhites were more frequently targeted in the failed “war on drugs” begun in the early 1980s.
The first mass pardon was issued in Nevada in 2018 by then-Gov. Steve Sisolak (D) to 15,000 people convicted of possessing up to an ounce of cannabis. Since then, Democratic governors in six other states have followed suit: Washington, Illinois, Colorado, Pennsylvania, Oregon and, most recently, Massachusetts. A more limited pardon was issued to just over 600 people in Wisconsin. Another set of pardons went to about 40 people in Idaho, the only one of the states led by a GOP chief executive. At the federal level, Pres. Joseph R. Biden, Jr. (D) issued pardons for thousands of marijuana-related convictions in the U.S. and D.C. in October 2022, as PLN reported. [See: PLN, July 2023, p.58.]
However, an attempt to make pardons easier for minor pot-possession convictions that was adopted by Louisiana lawmakers was vetoed by Gov. Jeff Landry (R) on June 24, 2024. H.B. 391 applied to possession of marijuana in amounts up to 14 grams, for which state law now allows a ticket and fine, but no jail time. Landry said that signing the bill would mean joining Pres. Biden’s “soft-on-crime, no-consequences-for-criminals agenda.”
Sources: The Hill, New Orleans Times-Picayune, Reason
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