(Washington) The US state of Maryland will expunge 175,000 marijuana convictions handed down over the past decades, its governor, Wes Moore, announced Sunday in statements to the Washington Post.
Mr. Moore, Democrat and first black governor of Maryland, declared to the American daily that he intended to “rectify a large number of historical errors” by signing this pardon decree on Monday.
Approximately 100,000 people will see convictions for possessing or smoking a drug that is now legal in the state and widely consumed disappear from their criminal records.
According to Mr Moore, many people, the majority of whom are from ethnic minorities, are still denied jobs, housing or access to education because of previous convictions for cannabis possession.
Maryland, a state of six million inhabitants on the east coast of the United States, legalized the recreational use and retail sale of marijuana by referendum in 2023.
“You can’t hold people responsible for possessing marijuana when it’s distributed on every street corner,” Derek Liggins, one of those pardoned Monday, told the Washington Post.
Mr. Liggins, 57, was imprisoned for marijuana possession in the late 1990s, and says he is still losing job opportunities decades after serving his sentence.
According to Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown, the pardon applies to all those convicted of marijuana possession, but “disproportionately affects – in a good way” the black population.
According to the Washington Post, black people make up 33% of Maryland’s population, but 70% of the state’s incarcerated men. According to the American Civil Liberties Union, a black person was three times more likely than a white person to be arrested for marijuana possession.