Massachusetts: Governor Issues Pardons For Those With Misdemeanor Marijuana Convictions

Democratic Gov. Maura Healey announced today that she is issuing pardons to those with misdemeanor marijuana convictions.

She suggested that hundreds of thousands of people will receive pardon relief. “This is the most sweeping cannabis pardon [initiative] ever proposed by a Governor,” she said — emphasizing that the action applies to anyone who was ever convicted of a marijuana misdemeanor in the state.

According to data reported by The Boston Globe, there were nearly 68,800 civil or criminal violations for marijuana possession issued in Massachusetts from 2000 through 2013 alone.

“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’s Deputy Director Paul Armentano said. “Our sense of justice and our principles of fairness demand that public officials and the courts move swiftly to right the past wrongs of cannabis prohibition and criminalization.”

Under the plan, pardons will be issued automatically. Those who wish to receive a written pardon certificate will be able to fill out an online form to request one.

Pardons are a recognition of forgiveness for a past crime. They may be granted by the executive branch of the government. By contrast, expungements vacate crimes from one’s criminal record. They are issued by the judicial branch.

State lawmakers in 2018 enacted legislation permitting those with eligible marijuana convictions to petition the courts for an expungement of their records. In 2022, the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts limited judges abilities to deny cannabis-related expungement requests. At that time, data provided by the Massachusetts Probation Service reported that fewer than 20 percent of marijuana-related expungement requests were being approved by the courts.

In recent years, Governors of several states — including Colorado, Nevada, Oregon, Illinois, and Washington — have granted over 100,000 thousand pardons to those with low-level marijuana convictions. Additionally, publicly available data compiled by NORML this year finds that state courts have either expunged or sealed the records of more than two million marijuana-related cases since 2018.

In December, President Joe Biden issued an expanded pardon proclamation for those seeking forgiveness for certain federal marijuana-related convictions. (The President had previously issued a more limited proclamation in 2022 and the Justice Department has opened an online portal for eligible applicants.) In his proclamations, he also encouraged Governors to issue similar pardons to those with state-level cannabis convictions.

Governor Healey said during her 2022 gubernatorial campaign that she would “move to pardon state convictions for simple marijuana possession, modeled after the steps taken” by President Biden.

Nationwide polling compiled by YouGov reports that nearly six in ten Americans support expunging marijuana-related convictions for non-violent offenses.

The full text of the updated report, Marijuana Pardons and Expungements: By the Numbers, is available from NORML.