A hundred thousand people who have been convicted of marijuana-related crimes in the American state of Maryland are being pardoned.
According to the state's governor, Democrat Wes Moore, this is a way to make amends for decades of injustices and inequalities that have primarily affected coloured residents.
If you want to create inclusive economic growth, it means you have to start removing barriers that disproportionately affect coloured groups, says Moore to The Washington Post.
The governor points out how old convictions for minor drug offences are used to deny people housing, jobs, and education – while the state has gradually decriminalised and deregulated the use and sale of marijuana in recent years.
Hundreds of thousands of people who have been convicted of cannabis-related crimes have been pardoned in nine different states and several cities in the USA as the drug has been legalised in many places.
