– State overturns 175,000 marijuana convictions
About 100,000 people in Maryland will have convictions for possessing or smoking marijuana removed from their criminal records.
Published today at 4:55 a.m.
Governor Wes Moore, in Maryland on June 7, 2024.
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The American state of Maryland will overturn 175,000 convictions for marijuana consumption handed down over the past decades, its governor, Wes Moore, announced on Sunday in statements to the “Washington Post”.
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Wes Moore, Democrat and first black governor of Maryland, told the American daily that he intended to “rectify a large number of historical errors” by signing this pardon decree on Monday.
Around 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.
Legalization in 2023
According to Wes 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 the people pardoned Monday, told the Washington Post.
“Disproportionately”
Derek 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 represent 33% of Maryland’s population, but 70% of men incarcerated in the state. 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.
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