Maryland Bill To Shield Records For Pardoned Marijuana Offenses From Public Access Heads To Governor’s Desk

Maryland lawmakers have given final approval to a bill that would 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.

The legislation from Senate President Bill Ferguson (D) cleared the Senate last month and passed the House in a 101-38 vote last week. It now heads to the desk of Gov. Wes Moore (D), who requested that the measure be filed at the beginning of the session.

Under the proposal, the Maryland Judiciary Case Search could no longer “in any way refer to the existence of records of a charge of possession of cannabis in a case with electronic records if the charge resulted in a conviction that was later pardoned by the Governor.”

Last year, Moore granted a mass pardon of more than 175,000 convictions around cannabis and paraphernalia offenses, the records of which would be blocked from public access under the bill that’s been sent to his desk. Pardons represent formal forgiveness from the executive, but such relief doesn’t remove the records.

“Hundreds of thousands of Americans unduly carry the burden and stigma of a past conviction for behavior that most Americans, and a growing number of states, no longer consider to be a crime,” NORML Deputy Director Paul Armentano said in a blog post on Tuesday.

“Our sense of justice and our principles of fairness demand that elected officials and the courts move swiftly to right the past wrongs of cannabis prohibition and criminalization,” he said.

According to NORML, more than 350,000 cannabis-related pardons and over two million expungements have been processed nationwide since 2018.

In February, the governor discussed the bill the legislature has now passed, stressing that it would expand opportunities for people to have their criminal records for marijuana expunged by allowing people who violated terms of their parole or probation to petition courts to erase those records.

“A cornerstone of our effort this year will be helping ensure that we confront this myth that every single sentence needs to be treated like a life sentence,” the governor said, “and that is why this session I have introduced legislation to build on the historic cannabis pardons that I signed into law last year, the largest state pardon in our nation’s history.”

The legislation would expand the range of offenses eligible for expungement and remove a requirement that people satisfy “parole, probation, or mandatory supervision” before petitioning a court to expunge their criminal records.

Instead, the proposal would require only that people complete the sentence and wait a certain number of years, depending on the nature of the conviction.

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Meanwhile, a Maryland House bill that would allow adults to manufacture marijuana edibles and concentrates for personal use has also been sent the governor. And a Senate companion version of the measure is also advancing through the legislature.

Under the measures, possession, cultivation and distribution of high-volume cannabis in excess of 50 pounds would no longer be considered a felony punishable by a mandatory minimum sentence of five years in prison. Instead, it would be a misdemeanor carrying a maximum 10 year sentence and/or a $50,000 fine.

The advancement of the legislation came about one week after the Maryland Senate passed a measure to protect for fire and rescue workers from being penalized for off-duty use of medical marijuana.

Employers could not “discipline, discharge, or otherwise discriminate against the fire and rescue public safety employee with respect to the employee’s compensation, terms, conditions, or privileges of employment” based solely on a positive screening for THC metabolites.

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.

Meanwhile, the governor in February touted legislation in his State of the State address 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.

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Photo courtesy of Mike Latimer.

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