42
With the stroke of a pen on an executive order last June, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore pardoned 175,000 people convicted of low-level marijuana offenses in the state. It was the largest group pardoned by a state in American history. Marijuana was decriminalized in Maryland in January 2023. “Maryland is going to use this moment to right many historical wrongs,” said the Rhodes Scholar who attended Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. “Legalization does not erase the fact that nearly half of all drug arrests in Maryland during the early 2000s were for cannabis. It doesn’t erase the fact that Black Marylanders were three times more likely to be arrested for cannabis than White Marylanders before legalization.” Mention this the next time someone says your vote doesn’t count.