As people across the country continue to suffer consequences of cannabis criminalization even in states where it is now legal, Maryland recently took a historic step toward ending this hypocrisy. Alongside justice advocacy organizations, including Last Prisoner Project (LPP), Governor Wes Moore (D-Maryland) signed an executive order granting the largest state cannabis pardon to date.
LPP applauds Gov. Moore and his administration’s actions to rectify racial disparities caused by cannabis prohibition, including this historic pardon that goes further than any previous cannabis clemency grant by including cannabis paraphernalia charges, in addition to possession charges. Together, more than 175,000 convictions will be pardoned.
Symbolically, Governor Moore has granted these pardons using LPP’s “Pen to Right History”–a pen that loved ones of people impacted by cannabis incarceration around the country have used to write letters to elected officials asking for justice. By using the pen, Gov. Moore joins LPP and all of their constituents in challenging other governors and leaders across the country to take up this “Pen to Right History” in their own states. McCann New York partnered with LPP last year on the original “The Pen to Right History” campaign.
And now McCann NY, commemorating its work with LPP, has created this video outlining Gov. Moore’s signing and the impact of the “Pen to Right History.”
