The Health Divide: Maryland’s cannabis pardons seek to redress the racial injustice of the war on drugs

When the police pulled over Shiloh Jordan for not wearing a seatbelt, he had no idea how much the stop would impact his life.

The officer told Jordan that he smelled marijuana and proceeded to search the vehicle. He found cannabis crumbs on the car’s floor. Jordan, who was in his early 20s, was booked and jailed. Although he didn’t think much of the misdemeanor drug charge at first, he would soon discover how drastically his life would change. 

Shiloh was let go from his new job on the second day after failing a background check due to the minor cannabis offense. Maryland Gov. Wes Moore stated that the sole blemish on Shiloh’s criminal record was cannabis charge, which ultimately led to his termination.

In June, Moore signed a landmark executive order pardoning Shiloh and more than 175,000 Maryland convictions related to the possession of cannabis. This includes convictions for misdemeanor possession of cannabis and certain convictions for misdemeanor possession of drug paraphernalia.  

The order represents the largest pardon for misdemeanor cannabis possession charges in any state in the nation, and Maryland is the first state to include paraphernalia in such an action.

During a June press conference, Moore and Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown said the war on drugs was the new Jim Crow and the pardon was a way to correct the injustices of an unjust criminal justice system that has disproportionately punished Black Americans for minor drug offenses. 

The shackles of slavery have been removed, but they left an indelible mark on our state and nation, said Brown, Maryland’s first Black Attorney General. 

The promise of reconstruction was replaced by Jim Crow laws that stripped free Black people of their rights and treated them like second-class citizens. After the Civil War and the state of freedom we experienced, the emergence of the convict leasing system exploited Black labor under the guise of punishment, Brown said. 

"Our current reality of disproportionate arrests and convictions is a result of slavery and the war on drugs targeting communities of color, showing deeply rooted bias in drug-related arrests and sentencing,” Brown said. 

“I can almost hear the clanging of those shackles falling to the floor with your pardon,” he told Jordan at the June press conference.

Cannabis laws have resulted in unequal treatment 

It’s estimated that one in five Black men born in the early 2000s will face incarceration at some point in their lifetime. While this number has fallen from its high of one in three for Black men born in 1981, it is still 5.5 times higher than white men, according to a recent study by The Sentencing Project.

The primary factor contributing to the difference in Black and white male incarceration rates is drug-related offenses. 

"In simple terms, the enforcement of cannabis laws has not been impartial, resulting in unequal treatment under the law," Brown said. 

In her 2010 book "The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness," Michelle Alexander argued that the U.S. criminal justice system employed the war on drugs as an instrument for perpetuating both traditional and newer forms of discrimination and oppression. 

The rise of new forms of racism has led the United States to have the highest incarceration rate in the world, with African American men being disproportionately affected.  

Gov. Moore said he used the executive order because policymaking is powerful. Looking at the past, you can see how policies have been “intentionally deployed to hold back entire communities,” he said. 

“We are talking about tools that have led to the mass incarceration of Black men and boys. We are talking about tools that have led to restricted access to jobs and housing in minority communities,” Moore said. 

These “tools” have led to an 8-to-1 racial wealth gap in Maryland. 

“(W)e know we do not get to an 8-to-1 wealth gap because one group is working eight times harder than another,” Moore said.

In Maryland, 71% of the prison population is Black, yet they only make up 31% of Maryland’s population. Many Blacks there and elsewhere are incarcerated for drug-related offenses. 

To undo this kind of intentionality, we need to apply our own intentionality to help people like Shiloh. 

Shiloh, 32, said the cannabis arrest from 12 years ago stayed on his record until Moore's pardon. 

Shiloh told The Maryland Independent that he felt defeated after losing his job, but he didn't allow that incident to define him. He joined a job readiness program and went to college. Now, he is an outreach coordinator at the Center for Urban Families in Baltimore, a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping families overcome poverty.  

Biden reclassified cannabis in May 

While Maryland’s groundbreaking pardon may be the largest of its kind, decriminalizing drugs is not a new thing. 

In 1988, Baltimore Mayor Kurt Schmoke recognized that much of the street violence was connected to conflicts over drugs. He advocated for a more balanced strategy that viewed addiction as a disease rather than just a criminal issue. This led to him being labeled as "the most dangerous man in America" by conservatives in Congress. 

Schmoke focused on decriminalization rather than legalization, prioritizing public health and implementing a needle exchange program. Despite initial legislative resistance, the program was adopted in 1994 and led to a decrease in HIV infections. 

Brown credits Schmoke for his push to decriminalize certain drugs 36 years ago and wonders where the nation would be had more people joined the movement. 

In 2023, recreational cannabis was legalized in Maryland after a constitutional amendment was approved by 67% of the voters in 2022. Possession of personal use amounts of cannabis was decriminalized in Maryland on Jan. 1, 2023. Currently, 24 states and the District of Columbia have legalized recreational cannabis. 

Moore’s pardon comes a month after President Joe Biden announced he would reclassify cannabis as a less dangerous substance. "Far too many lives have been upended because of (our) failed approach to marijuana. I'm committed to righting those historic wrongs," Biden said in May. 

The administration has proposed reclassifying marijuana from a Schedule I to a Schedule III controlled substance. This would mean that the federal government no longer considers marijuana as dangerous and habit-forming as substances like ecstasy, heroin, and LSD. Schedule III drugs are seen as having a moderate risk of abuse. 

Biden's recent move is a significant shift, considering that he authored the widely criticized 1994 crime bill, which helped drive the wave of mass incarceration for drug offenses that has disproportionately affected Black people. 

While Biden's decision does not legalize marijuana, it represents a progressive step. 

“State and local officials should follow this move by the president to scale back and reduce the harms of the war on marijuana in their state and move to decriminalize marijuana. Americans want policies that repair the communities torn apart through over-criminalization and over-policing,” said Cynthia W. Roseberry, director of policy and government affairs at the ACLU’s Justice Division, in a statement. 

"There are far too many individuals from Black and Brown communities who are unjustly incarcerated due to marijuana-related charges. The ability to bring about change in this aspect holds immense importance," said Ruben Gaona, who leads a nonprofit organization called “My Way Out,” based in Milwaukee. 

Andre Brown, an employment specialist with the prison reform group Project Return, praised the actions of Moore and Biden, but expressed concern that progress is too slow. 

"Half of the country has already legalized marijuana, and numerous studies have demonstrated that marijuana use is not harmful. When you survey the population, the majority express support for the legalization of marijuana. I don’t understand the delay. After all, alcohol causes significantly more harm than cannabis," he said. 

Brown said legalizing cannabis would also cut down on the number of parolees being revoked by their parole officer for failing a drug test.   

For those on parole are subject to prohibitions, violating regulations regarding cannabis can result in their return to incarceration. 

“That’s got to change, right now,” he said. 

Moore’s move is part of that change. 

Now we wait and see if other states follow suit.