Expungement

Congressional Democrats are planning to take on numerous cannabis reform proposals during the upcoming legislative session, including banking, expungement, decriminalization, and social equity considerations.

A bipartisan cannabis bill by Reps. Dave Joyce (R) and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D) would offer grants to states and local governments to establish and improve cannabis expungement programs.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said lawmakers behind his federal cannabis bill want to ensure smaller businesses have access to the cannabis industry, that states expunge records for nonviolent cannabis crimes, and that funds generated go to restorative justice initiatives.

Arkansas advocates are gathering signatures to put a cannabis legalization constitutional amendment on next year’s ballot.

Medical cannabis patients in New York will soon be allowed to grow their own cannabis under new rules from the Office of Cannabis Management.

Sen. Mike Regan, who helped write Pennsylvania’s 2016 medical cannabis law, is circulating a memorandum seeking to add co-sponsors to a cannabis legalization bill.

The House Judiciary Committee on Thursday approved the Marijuana Opportunity, Reinvestment, and Expungement Act which removes cannabis from the federal schedule of controlled substances and expunges federal cannabis convictions.

Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón and nonprofit The Social Impact Center identified nearly 60,000 cannabis convictions to be dismissed under criminal justice provisions of California’s cannabis legalization law.

President Biden received a letter this week signed by more than 150 celebrity entertainers, politicians, law enforcement officials, and advocates requesting clemency for federal cannabis offenders.

Since July, New Jersey courts have expunged at least 362,000 low-level cannabis-related criminal records and there are an estimated 125,000 to 150,000 similar cases that could be automatically expunged under the state’s legalization law.

Medical cannabis dispensaries in Minnesota are partnering with volunteer attorneys from St. Paul’s Mitchell Hamline School of Law to host expungement clinics and help people clear their records of nonviolent cannabis charges.

A proposal in Michigan would eliminate the state’s “moral character” clause in its adult-use cannabis law, which can block industry participation based on “integrity, moral character, and reputation” or if the applicant has prior cannabis offenses.

Advocates in Missouri have filed a ballot initiative to legalize cannabis for adults in the state. They must now collect 175,000 signatures to secure the issue on next year’s midterm ballots.

The New Orleans City Council approved language to retroactively and proactively pardon all low-level cannabis cases in the city, effectively nixing some 10,000 cannabis convictions and decriminalizing cannabis moving forward.

Democratic senators unveiled the Cannabis Administration and Opportunity Act today, which seeks to federally legalize cannabis and contains social justice elements aimed at undoing the harms of prohibition.

The dismissal of the more than 6,000 cases comes two months after lawmakers legalized cannabis for adult use in New York.

Arizona’s Supreme Court launched a new website to help people determine whether they are eligible to have their cannabis-related criminal records cleared.

Edmund DeVeaux is a New Jersey-based cannabis industry lobbyist and President of the New Jersey CannaBusiness Association.

Washington DC Mayor Muriel Bowser said last week the city is ready to legalize adult-use cannabis sales as soon as the Congressional rider blocking the reforms is gone.

Cannabis use and possession are officially legal in New York after Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) signed the state’s legalization bill into law on Wednesday.

New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D) called lawmakers back to the capital for a special legislative session specifically to reach a cannabis legalization deal.

A California Superior Court judge in San Diego County reduced some 26,000 felony cannabis charges to misdemeanors and fully dismissed another 1,000 misdemeanor charges.

A group of Oregon activists, business owners, and lawmakers have put forward the Oregon Cannabis Social Equity Act, which aims to use cannabis tax dollars to help repair damage done by the racist drug war.

The Illinois State Police and Gov. J.B. Pritzker together cleared over 500,000 cannabis-related criminal records on New Year’s Eve.