The governor of Maryland is proud that he received more votes than any prior gubernatorial candidate in the state when he was elected—but he says there was “one thing that beat me on the ballot” in 2022: Marijuana legalization.
“So I’m like, ‘Yo, who is cannabis? How are they popular? Moore told a joke Tuesday during an appearance at a Washington, D.C., bookstore.
Maryland had voted in favor of a recreational marijuana market around the same time as I became governor. So I said, ‘We’re going to make sure that it is fair, we’re going to make sure that it is smooth and we’re going to make sure that it’s safe,'” Moore continued. But I will not celebrate the legalization of marijuana unless we also deal with the criminalization of it.
“We cannot have a new legal market—that is now a billion-dollar market in the state of Maryland—but also have people who cannot get barber’s licenses or cannot get a student loan because of a misdemeanor cannabis conviction from the 1990s,” he said, adding that’s why he signed “the largest mass pardon in the history of the United States of America when I ended up pardoning over 175,000 misdemeanor cannabis convictions. “I was very proud of using my pardon power for the good.”
He followed up on that clemency action in June, issuing another mass pardon for people with past marijuana possession convictions—granting relief to about 7,000 more people on the holiday Juneteenth that commemorates the end of slavery.
In February, the governor also touted in his State of the State address legislation that would expand opportunities for people to have their criminal records for marijuana expunged, allowing people who violated terms of their parole or probation to petition courts to erase those records.
Meanwhile, in April, Moore signed a series of cannabis bills, including one that will require state officials to automatically shield records for low-level marijuana convictions that have been pardoned from public access, and to more broadly expand expungement eligibility for certain other offenses.
He signed off also on legislation that would allow adults to produce marijuana edibles or concentrates, for personal consumption. Also included in the measure were rules governing cannabis lounges.
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Separately, the Maryland Senate also passed a measure this session to protect for fire and rescue workers from being penalized for off-duty use of medical marijuana, though it did not advance through the House.
In January, officials in Maryland’s most populous county separately said they were moving to loosen marijuana policies for would-be police officers in an effort to boost recruitment amid a staffing shortage.
Maryland’s psychedelic task force has recently released an initial report, as they gather information on various regulatory and health concerns that may pave the way for legalizing substances like psilocybin and DMT in Maryland for recreational or medical purposes.
Mike Latimer provided the photo.
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