Missouri voters to weigh pardon for past marijuana-related offenses

COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — Missouri could become the first state to pass a voter-led effort to require courts to automatically pardon past marijuana-related offenses as part of a constitutional amendment to legalize marijuana. recreation on the November ballot.

Of the 19 states where recreational marijuana is legal, only seven require some kind of judicial pardon for those convicted of committing crimes that have since been decriminalized, according to the advocacy group the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.

They were the legislators in California, Connecticut, Vermont, Illinois, New York, New Jersey Y Rhode Island who took steps to grant amnesty for marijuana offenses in the past.

Missouri voters would be the first to spearhead what is called automatic expungement on their own, said John Payne, campaign manager for the legalization of recreational marijuana.

Payne said the goal is to allow people with marijuana-related convictions to “get their lives back.”

“This will allow those people to live fuller and more complete lives,” he said. “That also helps society in general, because they are essentially being excluded from the economy and from productive life because of that burden. We’re going to eliminate that for them.”

Missouri’s Republican-led Legislature resisted for years addressing marijuana policies, leading voters to lead a successful effort in 2018 to amend the state constitution to allow medical marijuana.

Thanks to another advocate-led ballot initiative, Missouri voters will decide in November whether to allow people 21 and older to buy and grow marijuana for personal use and whether to grant automatic expungement for past marijuana-related offenses.

Recreational legalization proposals are also on the ballot this fall in South Dakota Y Maryland. Similarly, the Maryland measure would require automatic expungements, though state lawmakers have referred that proposal to the ballot.

Missouri’s proposal would erase prior marijuana-related convictions for nonviolent offenders and those whose convictions did not include selling to minors or driving under the influence of alcohol.

Under current Missouri law, it is up to previous offenders to request a clean slate. Missouri lawmakers in 2016 passed legislation that allowed people to apply for removal of two misdemeanor or ordinance violations that carry jail time and one felony. Certain felonies, such as sex crimes and dangerous felonies, are not eligible for expungement.

Leslie Corbett, executive director of the low-income legal aid group Illinois Equal Justice Foundation, said she is concerned that an Illinois law that is described as automatic expungement but requires past violators to take action has been underutilized because it is confusing. .

Corbett said the law, which has been described by supporters as automatic expungement because police records are immediately expunged, requires most previous offenders to request that their court records be expunged as well.

“People don’t realize they still need to take action, even if it was automatically removed,” he said.

In most cases, Payne said the Missouri amendment places the onus on courts, not prior offenders, to expunge records, though inmates would have to petition the courts for early release on marijuana charges.

The amendment gives the courts six months to expunge past misdemeanors and one year for eligible felonies.

Marijuana sales would be subject to a 6% tax under the Missouri amendment, which the State Auditor’s Office Estimate would generate at least $41 million a year. The funds are intended to pay for the monitoring, administration, and expungement process. The remaining funds would go to veterans’ homes, public defenders and drug addiction treatment services.

Municipalities could tax marijuana sales an additional 3%, or up to $14 million a year.

Cost estimates compiled by the Missouri State Auditor do not include administrative court expenses related to resolving prior marijuana convictions.

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