Baltimore to Stop Prosecuting Marijuana Possession, Vacate Almost 5,000 Convictions

Baltimore State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby said her office would stop prosecuting people for all marijuana possessions and that she is seeking to vacate the marijuana convictions of almost 5,000 people.

In a Tuesday press release, Mosby said her office would still prosecute individuals who clearly intend to distribute.

"When I ask myself: Is the enforcement and prosecution of marijuana possession making us safer as a city? the answer is emphatically 'no,'" Mosby said. Maryland decriminalized possession of 10 grams of marijuana in 2014 and subsequently public smoking, according to The Hill. Marijuana is still officially against the law.

She described the move as a means to correct resource waste and said it was meant to rectify the "vast and ongoing moral failure" of incarcerating people for marijuana possession.

"Communities are still sentenced under these unjust policies, still paying a price for behavior that is already legal for millions of Americans. That's why I'm moving to vacate these cases," she said in a press release.

Ninety-five percent of Baltimore's marijuana possession citations from 2017 were given to African-Americans, according to ABC News. This racial disparity is reflected in national trends.

After analyzing 8.2 million marijuana arrests from 2001 to 2010, the ACLU said that black individuals were 3.73 times more likely than whites to be arrested for marijuana even though individuals of both races used marijuana at similar rates.

Noting that black and white residents use marijuana at approximately the same rates but black residents are more likely to be punished by law enforcement, Mosby said "the statistics are damning when it comes to the disproportionate impact that the 'War on Drugs' has had on communities of color. As your State's Attorney, I pledged to institute change and I refuse to stand by and be a facilitator of injustice and inequity when it is clear that we can be so much smarter and do so much more on behalf of the people we serve."

Federal law still prohibits marijuana use, but support for legalizing marijuana has risen significantly in recent years and in 2018 had reached 62 percent, according to the Pew Research Center.

Ten states, predominantly along the coasts of the country, and Washington, DC, have legalized recreational marijuana, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Another 13 have decriminalized marijuana, Vox reported.