Officials in Seattle announced on April 25 that they have filed a motion calling on the city\u2019s Municipal Court to vacate all convictions and drop all charges for marijuana possession going all the way back to 1996. The move would affect 542 people who have convictions on their records.<\/p>\n
\u201cVacating charges for misdemeanor marijuana possession is a necessary step to correct the injustices of what was a failed war on drugs, which disproportionately affected communities of color in Seattle,\u201d Mayor Jenny Durkan said in a statement<\/a> quoted by The Hill.<\/p>\n Durkan\u2019s words made clear her belief that Washington state\u2019s legalization of cannabis, approved by voters in 2012, must actively work to solve the social injustices brought on by the long years of prohibition. \u201cThe war on drugs in large part became a war on people who needed opportunity and treatment,\u201d she said. \u201cWhile we cannot reverse all the harm that was done, we must do our part to give Seattle residents \u2014 including immigrants and refugees \u2014 a clean slate.\u201d<\/p>\n The\u00a0motion<\/a>\u00a0explicitly acknowledges the racial disparity in cannabis convictions, citing a 2013\u00a0ACLU report<\/a>\u00a0to the effect that \u201cAfrican-Americans are 3.73 times more to be arrested for possession of marijuana than Caucasians, even though both groups consume marijuana at similar rates.\u201d<\/p>\n City Attorney Pete Holmes, who drafted and filed the motion, said in a statement<\/a> quoted by Seattle\u2019s\u00a0The Stranger weekly publication:\u00a0\u201cAs we see marijuana sold in retail storefronts today, people who simply had a joint in their pocket a decade ago still have a red mark on their records. It\u2019s long past time we remedy the drug policies of yesteryear, and this is one small step to right the injustices of a drug war that has primarily targeted people of color. I\u2019m hopeful the court will choose to clear these charges.\u201d<\/p>\n Mayor Durkan especially emphasized in her statement that prohibitionist policies adversely impacted undocumented immigrant residents<\/a> of Washington state.<\/p>\n \u201cNoncitizens have also been unduly burdened by these convictions, which can provide a roadblock to gaining citizenship, or in the worst case, can initiate deportation proceedings,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n The Hill notes that\u00a0Seattle\u2019s motion to vacate cannabis convictions follows a\u00a0similar step<\/a>\u00a0in this direction by Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner. In February, Krasner dropped 51 recently filed marijuana possession charges and put city police on notice that he would continue to do so. \u201cWe are going to tell them, yes, drop any cases that are simply marijuana possession,\u201d Krasner\u00a0said<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cI did it because I felt it was the right thing to do,\u201d Krasner explained. \u201cWe could use those resources to solve homicides.\u201d<\/p>\n Pennsylvania has not legalized cannabis, although it has had a medical marijuana law since 2016. State lawmakers have since then\u00a0broached a legalization measure<\/a>\u00a0in the Keystone State. So judicial authorities there may yet get a chance to retroactively vacate convictions. But so far, Seattle is leading the way.<\/p>\n In California, lawyers are holding expungement clinics<\/a> to help citizens clear their records. The state\u2019s district attorneys have debated<\/a> whether or not they have the resources to comb through past records to vacate cannabis possession crimes, but some cities, including San Francisco, have promised to make the effort.<\/p>\n The Marijuana Justice Act\u00a0introduced\u00a0earlier this year by New Jersey\u2019s Sen. Cory Booker would retroactively expunge all federal convictions for possession or use of cannabis. This bill would actually remove cannabis from the Controlled Substances Act. In mid-April, the Marijuana Justice Act got a big boost when Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont\u00a0signed on to it<\/a>.<\/p>\n TELL US,<\/strong> is your city expunging cannabis records?<\/p>\n The post Seattle Plans to Clear Cannabis Convictions<\/a> appeared first on Cannabis Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Officials in Seattle announced on April 25 that they have filed a motion calling on the city\u2019s Municipal Court to vacate all convictions and drop all charges for marijuana possession going all the way back to 1996. The move would affect 542 people who have convictions on their records. \u201cVacatingContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":190,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[211,148,50,809,1871,4121,4122,2068,81,481],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25866"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/190"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25866"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25866\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25867,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25866\/revisions\/25867"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25866"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25866"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25866"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\nRead More: Seattle Plans to Clear Cannabis Convictions<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"