Maryland Governor Wes Moore held a press conference on Monday announcing the pardoning of more than 175,000 drug possession convictions.
The pardon, the most sweeping in US history, absolves an estimated 100,000 Marylanders of misdemeanor drug possession charges.
According to the American Civil Liberties Union, Black Americans are more than three times as likely to be arrested for cannabis possession than White Americans. This, in spite of the fact that White and Black Americans use cannabis at the same rates.
Moore’s sweeping pardon comes one year after Maryland rolled out its recreational cannabis industry. In his address Monday morning, Moore remarked on the state’s emphasis on ensuring access to recreational business ownership was equitable. When the state opened its first licensing round in March of this year, all 174 licenses issued went to social equity applicants, Moore said.
“And yet we know that legalization does not turn back the clock on decades of harm that was caused by this war on drugs,” Moore said.
“It doesn’t erase the fact that having a conviction on your record means a harder time with everything,” he continued. “Everything from housing, to employment, to education.”
“We cannot celebrate the benefits of legalization, if we do not address the affects of criminalization.”
Moore, the state’s first Black governor, spoke to the ways that state policies have been intentionally used as “tools” to harm Black and brown communities.
Governor Moore says pardon fulfills state’s promise to “leave no one behind”.
The Governor thanked his team, government leaders, law enforcement, activists, and community members who worked to make this pardon possible.
In his speech, Moore also elevated the story of Shiloh Jordan. During college, Jordan was arrested for possession of cannabis. Jordan’s started his first job after graduation, but was fired on the second day because of his conviction.
Today, Shiloh Jordan works as a policy leader in Baltimore, serving Marylanders and their families.
“Shiloh was not handed a second chance,” Moore said. “He built one for himself, despite the odds, and despite a system that was not built to support your second chance. And you made it count.”
“But those successes,” he went on, “do not change the fact that Shiloh still has a cannabis conviction on his record. Well today, that ends.”
Governor Moore said his state has a responsibility to right the wrongs Shiloh Jordan and others have experienced because of damaging policy.
Maryland’s tagline, “leave no one behind”, Moore said, “is not a slogan. It’s a government philosophy.”