A year after the entry into force of the law on the recreational use and retail sale of cannabis, the governor of Maryland, Wes Moore (Democratic Party), decided to go even further, Monday June 17. He announced that he would cancel 175,000 convictions for cannabis consumption. The state’s first black governor claimed “the largest state-level pardon in American history.”
This decree of pardon concerns convictions prior to 2023. “The act we are taking together will have direct consequences for tens of thousands of Marylanders”, welcomed Wes Moore. Although three-quarters of Americans now live in a state where cannabis is legal, it is not yet legal at the federal level.
The Justice Department of President Joe Biden’s administration released its recommendation in May to reclassify cannabis as a less dangerous drug than currently. Like several other states, Maryland voted by referendum in 2022 to legalize the recreational use and retail sale of cannabis. This law then came into force in July 2023.
Category change for cannabis?
The governor of Maryland affirmed that this pardon makes it possible to repair social and racial injustices, while recalling that “Legalization does not turn back the clock on the damage caused by the war on drugs” in the USA. The law “does not erase the fact that black residents of Maryland were three times more likely than white residents to be arrested for marijuana possession”he added, highlighting the difficulties in accessing employment, housing or education generated by a criminal conviction.
Jason Ortiz, a leader of the Last Prisoner Project, which advocates for overturning convictions under now-defunct laws, welcomed Maryland’s initiatives. They will allow “repairing historic racial disparities caused by cannabis prohibition”, assured the activist. At the federal level, cannabis remains classified in category 1, that of substances considered very addictive and of no medical benefit, such as heroin. But the Ministry of Justice recommended its move to category 3, including substances presenting a moderate to low risk of dependence. This is the case, for example, with certain codeine medications.
“No one should be in prison solely for using or possessing marijuana, period”, President Joe Biden said in a video published in May. The Democratic candidate for the next presidential election in the United States had announced, in 2022, a series of measures to cancel the federal convictions of people punished for simple possession of cannabis. Proposals to reduce inequalities in access to employment or housing for convicted persons. Joe Biden had also called on health and judicial authorities to rethink the penalties associated with marijuana.
In 2020 and 2022, the House of Representatives then dominated by Democrats passed a bill to remove cannabis from the federal list of dangerous drugs, but faced opposition from the Senate.