Expungement

Sonoma County District Attorney Jill Ravitch announced the clearing of 2,735 low-level cannabis convictions last week.

Nevada’s State Board of Pardons is moving to pardon thousands of people who were convicted of low-level cannabis offenses prior to legalization.

Colorado lawmakers have approved legislation for social equity cannabis licensing and which gives the governor power to expunge low-level cannabis convictions from before the state legalized in 2012.

Michael Thompson was arrested for selling cannabis in 1994; he was given a de-facto life sentence in prison and now COVID-19 is poised to upgrade that to a death sentence unless Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer does the right thing.

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) vetoed a bill last week that would have blocked some cannabis convictions from public view.

Ice cream maker Ben & Jerry’s joined in the 4/20 festivities this year — not as a marketing ploy, but to advocate for responsible and progressive cannabis reforms.

COVID-19 is spreading through the U.S. prison system like wildfire and people who remain locked up on cannabis and nonviolent drug charges are being forced to face their mortality.

Santa Clara County in California is set to expunge or reduce over 11,500 cannabis convictions this week.

Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam has signed a bill into law that includes the decriminalization of cannabis possession and the sealing of light cannabis convictions in the state.

Rhode Island lawmakers have proposed two bills to expunge criminal records related to the possession of cannabis and other controlled substances.

Los Angeles County District Attorney Jackie Lacey has filed a motion to expunge some 66,000 cannabis-related convictions, including 62,000 felony convictions and 4,000 misdemeanors.

Utah lawmakers will consider a bill that would allow cannabis patients to expunge low-level cannabis offenses and clarify patient/employee rights when it comes to the state’s new medical cannabis program.

As Illinois became the 11th state to legalize adult-use cannabis this week, Gov. J.B. Pritzker also issued pardons for more than 11,000 cannabis convictions.

Illinois’ adult-use cannabis market launches today, January 1, 2020. It is the first state-legal cannabis market resulting from action by lawmakers, not the voters.

Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders has outlined a sweeping plan to end cannabis prohibition and address issues including social equity in the future industry and keeping major corporations out of the picture.

As the first piece of federal legislation that would end cannabis prohibition to make it through committee, the MORE Act deserves a closer look; unfortunately, the bill is expected to be dead on arrival if it ever reaches the Senate.

Wisconsin lawmakers are pushing to decriminalize up to an ounce of cannabis and expunge criminal cannabis possession records for up to 28 grams. Their proposal would also ban police from vehicle searches based only on the smell of cannabis.

New Mexico’s adult-use legalization task force has handed in its final report to the governor; the report suggests low-level expungement policies and predicts up to $620 million in annual cannabis sales after five years.

Pennsylvania lawmakers have proposed an adult-use cannabis legalization bill that includes home cannabis cultivation, delivery, social-use, and expungement; the bill would also establish commercial micro-grow permits capped at $250 per year, with large-scale grows costing $10,000 annually with a $100,000 application fee.

Nearly one full year after cannabis was legalized federally in Canada, only 77 people have applied to have cannabis charges expunged from their background and just 44 have been successfully pardoned.

During a campaign rally last week, Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang said that he would issue a mass pardon for federal nonviolent cannabis offenses if he is elected president.

A Manhattan judge has sealed hundreds of cannabis possession cases in the wake of a successful class action petition brought in part by the borough’s district attorney.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has signed a bill into law that establishes an expungement process for low-level criminal charges and expands the state’s existing decriminalization rules.

Democratic Rep. Jerry Nadler and Sen. Kamala Harris are introducing a federal cannabis reform bill called the Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement (MORE) Act to both decriminalize cannabis and set up the expungement of prior cannabis convictions.