Wes Moore and the politics of cannabis

Jun 18, 2024

With help from Ella Creamer, Jesse Naranjo, Rishika Dugyala and Teresa Wiltz

Photo illustration of torn-paper edge on photo of Wes Moore walking into event.

Gov. Wes Moore appears at a campaign event June 7 in Landover, Maryland. | POLITICO illustration/Photo by Getty Images

What up, Recast fam! Let us be the first to wish you a happy Juneteenth tomorrow. In today’s edition we hear from Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester, who is looking to make history in Delaware. We have a sneak peak of a documentary on track and field legend Jesse Owens and his greatness in the 1936 Olympics. First, though, we focus on the politics of weed with Maryland Gov. Wes Moore.

With the stroke of a pen, the nation’s only Black governor signed a blanket pardon for more 175,000 marijuana convictions in the state, a move he said was not just keeping a campaign promise but an effort to make his state more equitable.

The move comes less than a year after adult-use recreational cannabis became legal in the state.

“It's a great day for the soul of Maryland,” Democratic Gov. Wes Moore tells The Recast, just moments after the signing ceremony at the State House in Annapolis, the Maryland capital. “We have to be unafraid to right historical wrongs, and it means you have to sometimes look at pain right in the face and actually do something about it.”

That pain he’s referencing is the decades of harm brought to Black and brown communities from the war on drugs, a federal initiative started during the Richard Nixon administration in the early 1970s and ramped up a decade later during the Ronald Reagan era.

It led to mass incarceration for a range of drug offenses including for simple possession of marijuana.

Research has shown that while Black Americans consume marijuana at the same rates as white Americans, their arrest rates for marijuana possession are nearly four times higher than that of white users.

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Moore’s effort, which he called the “most sweeping state-level pardon in any state,” addresses systemic barriers that disproportionately impact residents of color in the state, largely from lingering records associated with old marijuana arrests. His executive action will forgive tens of thousands of people with nonviolent marijuana possession and paraphernalia charges, some of which date back more than 40 years.

The governor speaks with pride when talking about what he calls the nation’s “most successful recreational cannabis market” — one that includes 174 social equity applicants who have since been approved to sell marijuana in Maryland.

When Moore was swept into office in 2022, it coincided with a ballot initiative legalizing recreational cannabis, which was approved by two-thirds of Maryland voters.

Wes Moore signs an executive order surrounded by Maryland officials.

Moore signs an executive order to issue more than 175,000 pardons for marijuana convictions on Monday in Annapolis. | Brian Witte/AP

Even though cannabis was legalized, Moore says, that didn’t erase the fact that half of the drug arrests for cannabis in the state were for marijuana possession — or that Black Marylanders were three times more likely to be arrested than their white counterparts. Moore says it was up to his administration to usher in policies that reduced long-term harms.

“The mandate that the people gave us was about recreational use,” Moore says. “The mandate we gave ourselves was to right historic wrongs.”

When I ask him if the pardons will give him a boost in any future runs for higher office, he dodges the question. But many view him as a potential 2028 White House hopeful. Moore says his aim is to reverse low-level cannabis convictions which he says have been used as a “cudgel” to restrict Black men and boys from being full citizens.

“If I walk out of this office at the end of my time, and we still have people with cannabis convictions on books [who are] still not able to participate in our society, then what have I done?” Moore says. “Then what was the point of me being there? And I don't think that that's an extra pressure for me being the only Black governor. I think that every governor should feel that way.”

Pardon is just the first step in the process. Moore’s pardons do not automatically clear convictions from a person’s record; that has to come from the judiciary. Still, the governor’s aides said all of those pardoned Monday will have a pathway to expunge their records.

We’ll keep tabs on how the pardon process plays out and we’ll be sure to report back.

All the best,
The Recast Team

A DATE WITH HISTORY

Lisa Blunt Rochester speaks into microphones.

Rep Lisa Blunt Rochester speaks during a White House event at Delaware State University, Oct. 21, 2022, in Dover. | Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.) wears many hats. And now she’s seeking to add another: She’s vying to become Delaware’s first woman and the first African American to represent her state in the Senate.

She is also serving as national co-chair for the Biden-Harris campaign, helping promote what the administration sees as key policy achievements that have markedly improved American lives — even if voters don’t feel their impact.

Now Blunt Rochester is taking some time to focus on her own campaign. Even though she announced her Senate run a year ago, she officially filed her candidacy paperwork Tuesday morning, marking the official kickoff of her campaign.

She’s got deep, deep political ties in Delaware. She was an intern years ago when Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.), who is retiring at the end of this term, was serving in the House. And she’s known President Joe Biden for more than 30 years. All of this points to her being on a glide path to become the Small Wonder State’s next senator — she’s running unopposed in the Democratic primary in this deep-blue state.

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This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

THE RECAST: When people talk about your candidacy, it's often talked about in the context of you making history. How much does this add pressure to your run?

BLUNT ROCHESTER: For me, I really don't focus on that part of it.

I literally have had both students and teachers come up to me and say: “You were my project” or “we studied you in school” which is very strange as a person who is very much alive. But to the extent that it helps inspire people, that's a great thing.

I do believe as well, though, that representation matters. We know that there have only been three Black women in the United States Senate. The first [being] Carol Moseley Braun (D-Ill.). When I announced last year, I had a great conversation with her. We had the Vice President Kamala Harris, who I've also talked to, and now Laphonza Butler (D-Calif.), who was appointed. And the crazy thing is, they're all still alive!

So to me, the opportunity, the blessing, is there. But I will tell you the focus is getting the work done and making a difference.

THE RECAST: You talk about how representation matters. I know you recently endorsed state Sen. Sarah McBride who is running for the seat you are vacating. If you are both elected, this would be — there’s that word again — a historic slate, as she’d be the first trans member of Congress.

BLUNT ROCHESTER: Yes, yes, yes! Definitely! And again, it’s about bringing lived experiences to Congress.

THE RECAST: I’m curious if you have had conversations with Angela Alsobrooks, who is the Democratic nominee for Senate in Maryland. The two of you are on a similar journey of Black women on the verge of being elected to the Senate.

Chris Coons, Tom Carper and Lisa Blunt Rochester pose for photo.

Blunt Rochester stands with Delaware's current senators, Chris Coons and Tom Carper, Feb. 3 at the Biden campaign headquarters in Wilmington. | Alex Brandon/AP

BLUNT ROCHESTER: It's significant and exciting as well.

And in an environment where we need to make sure that people are motivated to come out and vote, we hope that that'll bring some energy. So I'm very excited to be on the campaign trail with her. Both of us know that our focus is our state. She's focused on Maryland. I'm focused on Delaware, but we also know that it can have a huge impact on the Senate itself

THE RECAST: You make mention that there’s an onus on Democrats to make sure voters are excited to come out to vote this fall. Is that a concern for you given the polls suggesting that Democrats and in particular President Biden are suffering from a lack of excitement, particularly among Black men?

BLUNT ROCHESTER: My job is to make sure that people connect their vote to their life.

I've said to people who tell me they’re not into politics, and my response is, “Well, are you into clean air and clean drinking water? Then you’re into politics. Are you into making sure that you know somebody's fighting for you as it pertains to democracy? Then you're into politics.”

It matters who the messengers are. So having a diverse pool of messengers, I think, also makes a difference, because we learned from the pandemic that it wasn't necessarily the surgeon general saying, “Get the vaccine.” It was the person's pastor, it was the pharmacist, it was your auntie. So even making sure that people are equipped to share the information that works for their issues and what they care about is really important.

THE TIME CAPSULE

Jesse Owens salutes while a man beside him does a Nazi salute at 1936 Olympic medal ceremony.

Jesse Owens, center, salutes during the presentation of his gold medal for the long jump Aug. 11, 1936, after defeating Nazi Germany's Lutz Long, right, during the Summer Olympics in Berlin. | AP

It’s been 88 years since track and field icon Jesse Owens embodied greatness in the 1936 Olympics in Berlin by dominating the competition — and emphatically debunking Adolf Hitler’s vision of the supremacy of Aryan athletes as a “master race.”

In the new documentary, “Triumph: Jesse Owens and the Berlin Olympics,” filmmaker Andre Gaines explores how the 22-year-old athlete left the Jim Crow South and headed for Nazi Germany — two places that went to great lengths to ensure he felt like a second-class citizen — and go on to win four gold medals, catapulting him to international fame.

Gaines tells The Recast those Olympic Games are often thought of as “Jesse Owens vs. Hitler,” but “it was really proof that there are other ways to fight a dictator besides war.”

Owens’ feat, according to Gaines, set the stage for later generations to take up the mantle of activist athlete — those who can leverage their platforms during the height of athletic glory to push for social and economic change. Among those he includes on that list are boxing legend Muhammad Ali, hoops legend Bill Russell and football Hall of Famer Jim Brown, as well as LeBron James, who's an executive producer on the film.

“He doesn't have an organized movement around him, like the Civil Rights Movement that we know [came years later] in the late ‘50s and ‘60s,” Gaines says. “He is one man tasked with the burden of, first of all, potentially boycotting the Olympics, which would have killed his dreams, and we would have never known Jesse Owens.”

He points out that the next two Olympic Games in 1940 and 1944 were canceled because of World War II.

While Owens was celebrated for his Olympic feats, back home the accolades were short-lived. He was thrown a ticker-tape parade, but he wasn’t welcome to stay at the hotels or dine at restaurants along the parade route. Nor did then-President Franklin Delano Roosevelt welcome Owens to the White House as he did with other victorious athletes.

The Olympics kick off next month in Paris. Gaines says he hopes his film gives Americans cheering on our athletes a fresh perspective — and a reverence — for what historical figures like Jesse Owens were able to accomplish.

“Triumph” debuts tomorrow, June 19, at 8 p.m. Eastern on The History Channel.

ICYMI @ POLITICO

Donald Trump speaks at a campaign event.

Republican presidential candidate and former President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign event on June 15, 2024, in Detroit, Michigan. | Carlos Osorio/AP

Trump Woos Black Voters in Detroit — The presumptive Republican nominee over the weekend launched his latest effort to appeal to Black voters with his “Black Americans for Trump,” POLITICO’s Natalie Allison reports.

Biden’s Executive Action on Deportations — POLITICO’s Myah Ward reports on the sweeping new election-year actions shielding tens of thousands of undocumented immigrants in the United States from deportation.

Warning Labels on Social Media? — Surgeon General Vivek Murthy is backing that very idea, reports POLITICO’s Ruth Reader and Rebecca Kern. They write that “with no power to issue warnings unilaterally” the nation’s top doctor “can only plead with Congress to act.”

Biden’s Secret Service Robbed at Gunpoint — POLITICO’s Kierra Frazier has details about how a member of the president’s Secret Service detail was held up following a fundraiser in Los Angeles over the weekend.

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