Maryland Democratic gubernatorial candidate Wes Moore tours Mary & Main, a medical cannabis dispensary in Capitol Heights Thursday with co-owner Hope Wiseman. The business is one of the few Black-owned dispensaries in Maryland. Photo by William J. Ford.
Just minutes after President Biden on Thursday announced executive actions that would pardon thousands of people with prior federal offenses of simple marijuana possession, Wes Moore, the Democratic candidate for governor, listened to Black entrepreneurs at Mary & Main, a medical cannabis dispensary in Capitol Heights.
With Election Day less than five weeks away, and voters in Maryland expected to approve a measure to legalize the use and sale of recreational cannabis, Moore’s visit not only focused on ways to establish equitable drug laws in the state, but also how to improve Black representation in the cannabis industry.
Moore held a roundtable discussion with Black entrepreneurs at Mary & Main, one of the few Black-owned dispensaries in the state, and the conversation touched on Biden’s pardons.
Moore said with the cannabis industry growing, statewide policy changes must address such topics as automatic criminal record expungements, the racial wealth gap and economic disparities.
“I applaud the president’s decision. I think