MA Gov. Healey Pardons Simple Cannabis Possession Convictions On Heels Of Biden's SOTU As Weed Sales Top $7B

Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey (D) announced on Wednesday she is pardoning all people convicted of simple cannabis possession at the state level, reported NBC Boston.

The move, approved by the governor’s council, comes on the heels of President Joe Biden's State of the Union speech, during which he reiterated his stance that no one should be incarcerated for possessing cannabis.

Biden announced last year that he was pardoning thousands of people who were convicted for the use and/or simple possession of marijuana on federal lands and in the District of Columbia. 2023 pardons included offenses related to "use and possession on certain Federal lands," – provisions that were not covered by Biden’s October 2022 pardon of some 6,500 federal cannabis prisoners.

On both occasions, Biden urged state Governors to follow suit and do the same with state offenses.

"This is the most sweeping cannabis pardon ever proposed by any governor in the United States," Democratic Gov. Healey said on Wednesday as it "will apply to all misdemeanor possession convictions in the state courts."

See also: Weed Could Be Biden’s Ace Up The Sleeve Against Trump If He Would Fulfill His Campaign Promises

Healey added that pardons will be issued automatically.

She said "Those eligible number in the hundreds of thousands," adding "they will not have to take any action themselves in the vast majority of these cases.”

Why It Matters?

Healey emphasized that thousands of people face challenges living with a conviction on their records.

"A conviction that may be a barrier to getting jobs, housing, even getting an education," she said. "For some, it’s simply more than that, a difficult memory, a burden, something they live with every day. all for doing something that isn’t even cause for arrest today.”

Data from the state’s Cannabis Control Commission showed that between 2000 to 2013 nearly 68,800 civil or criminal violations of cannabis possession statewide. According to an analysis by the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts, there were more than 8,000 arrests per year for selling or possessing cannabis between 1995 and 2008 – the year Massachusetts decriminalized small cannabis possessions.

$7M Billion Cannabis Sales Milestone

In the meantime, total cannabis sales in Massachusetts passed the $7 billion mark recently, according to data provided by the state's Cannabis Control Commission (CCC).

The six-month period between the $5 billion and $7 billion benchmarks was a short time to generate $2 billion in combined medical and recreational marijuana sales.

The total sum includes $5.81 billion coming from recreational cannabis purchases following the sales launch in 2018 and $1.24 billion in medical marijuana purchases over the same period.

Since the first two recreational cannabis shops opened in Massachusetts – the first on the East Coast – in November 2018, “the pace of hitting the next $1 billion aggregate gross sales milestone has continued to quicken, with each subsequent tally occurring faster than the previous one," the CCC noted in a statement published when retail weed sales statewide hit the $5 billion mark in September.

Now read: Examining Youth Marijuana Use In The Wake Of Cannabis Legalization In Massachusetts

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