Massachusetts governor proposes sweeping marijuana pardons

BOSTON — Gov. Maura Healey on Wednesday proposed a blanket pardon of misdemeanor marijuana possession convictions in Massachusetts in what she described as the broadest action taken by a governor to forgive past marijuana crimes since President Joe Biden handed down federal pot pardons.

Healey’s move to wipe out all past adult state court misdemeanor convictions for possession of marijuana comes seven years after the state legalized cannabis. The pardons will be mostly automatic, she said, and could potentially clear the charge from hundreds of thousands of people’s records.

“The reason we do this is simple: Justice requires it,” Healey said during a press conference announcing her plans at the State House.

Healey’s proposal still needs approval by the state’s Governor’s Council, which is comprised of all Democrats and has a record of backing Healey’s past requests for clemency for certain individuals. Four of the seven current members have already expressed support for the pot pardons in interviews with POLITICO ahead of Healey’s announcement.

Biden granted a pardon to all people convicted of simple marijuana possession under federal law back in 2022, saying in a statement at the time that “sending people to prison for possessing marijuana has upended too many lives and incarcerated people for conduct that many states no longer prohibit.” He urged governors to take similar action for state offenses.

Healey did not put a hard timeline on when or how quickly pardons will be issued in Massachusetts, saying only that she intends for the process of going through people’s records to be “operational as soon as there is a vote” by the Governor’s Council. State officials said it could take “months” to update people’s criminal records. People who need faster proof of the pardon will be able to request a certificate.

The broad pardons represent somewhat of a reversal for Healey, who had opposed legalizing marijuana when the question went before voters on the 2016 ballot. Then the state’s attorney general, she had raised concerns about drug trafficking and about the potential mental health effects for young people.

“Hopefully people want a governor who is willing to evolve,” Healey said Wednesday when asked about her past stances. “We all grow with more understanding.”

Healey cast the pardons as a way of reducing disparities in the state’s criminal justice system and of removing barriers to housing and jobs for something “that is no longer cause for arrest today.”

The move has won support from top Democrats and law enforcement officials in the state. Healey unveiled her plans with Andrea Campbell, the state’s first Black female attorney general, the state Senate president and the head of the Massachusetts Chiefs of Police Association by her side.

“President Biden urged governors to take action in their own states. And once again, Massachusetts is leading the nation as the first state in this country to answer that call,” Campbell said.

Other states have already moved to pardon or expunge the records of people arrested for low-level marijuana-related crimes. In 2022, then-Oregon Gov. Kate Brown moved to pardon roughly 47,000 adults convicted of simple marijuana possession. Missouri courts have cleared more than 100,000 marijuana charges after voters in 2022 passed a ballot measure legalizing marijuana that also included an automatic expungement provision. And Illinois wiped out nearly 500,000 marijuana convictions under a law requiring the automatic expungement of some non-felony cannabis-related arrest records by the start of 2025.

Healey said she chose pardons over expungement because only the former was within her power as governor.

“I’ve got to execute on what I have the power to execute on, which is to pardon,” she said.