The Ohio Senate approved a large-scale criminal justice reform bill on Wednesday that contains provisions to protect people from having criminal records for arrests or convictions over simple possession of marijuana paraphernalia. It also includes measures clearing a path for people to have convictions for cannabis possession and other offenses sealed and expunged.<\/p>\n
Under the nearly 1,000-page measure from Sen. Nathan Manning (R), misdemeanor cannabis paraphernalia possession cases would \u201cnot constitute a criminal record,\u201d nor would they need to be disclosed \u201cin response to any inquiries about the person\u2019s criminal record.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nThe Senate passes Senate Bill 288, sponsored by Senator @Manning_Nathan<\/a>, reforming criminal justice for Ohio. pic.twitter.com\/SbxgqPNWvp<\/a><\/p>\n
\u2014 Ohio Senate GOP (@OhioSenateGOP) November 30, 2022<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n
The bill, which cleared the chamber in a 27-2 vote, covers a wide range of issues, including sentencing reform for people in prison and criminal records expungements.<\/p>\n
The House of Representatives is also working on its own separate criminal justice reform bill. While the end of the session is near, lawmakers and advocates are hopeful that the chambers can come together and get legislation to the governor\u2019s desk in time.<\/p>\n
The Senate-passed bill would maintain that cannabis possession is considered a minor misdemeanor offense\u2014but it would provide a pathway for sealing the record from public view after six months and expunging the conviction altogether after three years, according to the sponsor.<\/p>\n
There would be a fee of generally not more than $50 to obtain the record relief, but it could be waived if the applicant can show they are indigent.<\/p>\n
\nSenator @Manning_Nathan<\/a> encourages Senate colleagues to support S.B, 288, his bill providing major criminal justice reforms for the state of Ohio. pic.twitter.com\/sXglpz3j5x<\/a><\/p>\n
\u2014 Ohio Senate GOP (@OhioSenateGOP) November 30, 2022<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n
\u201cWe have done a lot of work on this bill. And, really, the goal of this\u2014we talk about criminal justice reform, we talk about tough-on-crime, soft-on-crime\u2014really what we want to do is improve our criminal justice system and lower crime in our society and make our society a safer place,\u201d Manning said. \u201cAnd to do that, we did a lot of work here.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added that \u201ca lot of this bill<\/a> is long-term, making sure that people that have entered our judicial system exit the judicial system as better people, and to lower recidivism rates, to improve their quality of life and to make sure that we have less victims in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n
Of course, advocates would like to see Ohio take much bolder steps toward ending cannabis criminalization. But after an activist-led ballot campaign and legislative attempts to legalize marijuana stalled out this year, the Senate vote represents a welcome development.<\/p>\n
The campaign Coalition to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol (CTRMLA) sought to put legalization on the ballot this year, but it faced complications that ultimately pushed the reform proposal back to 2023<\/a> at earliest.<\/p>\n
In the legislature, a\u00a0pair of Ohio Democratic lawmakers\u00a0separately filed a bill to legalize marijuana<\/a> in April that directly mirrors the proposed initiative that activists had pursued, but it did not advance in time.<\/p>\n
A GOP legislator who sponsored a\u00a0different bill to tax and regulate cannabis<\/a> has tempered expectations this year about the chances for legislative reform, signaling that the issue will likely have to be decided by voters<\/a>.<\/p>\n
But Ohioans have made clear that they\u2019re ready for a policy change during elections in multiple recent cycles, including this latest one where voters in five more cities approved local marijuana decriminalization ballot initiatives<\/a>.<\/p>\n
A recent poll found that a majority of Ohio voters would support<\/a> marijuana legalization at the ballot statewide.<\/p>\n
As of September, Ohio medical marijuana sales\u00a0officially surpassed the $1 billion mark<\/a>\u00a0since dispensaries started serving patients in April 2019, state data shows.<\/p>\n
\nNevada Regulators Award State\u2019s First Marijuana Consumption Lounge Licenses In Lottery Drawings<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n
The post Ohio Senate Votes To Remove Marijuana Paraphernalia Convictions From Criminal Records And Allow Broader Expungement<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
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\nRead More: Ohio Senate Votes To Remove Marijuana Paraphernalia Convictions From Criminal Records And Allow Broader Expungement<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Ohio Senate approved a large-scale criminal justice reform bill on Wednesday that contains provisions to protect people from having criminal records for arrests or convictions over simple possession of marijuana paraphernalia. It also includes measures clearing a path for people to have convictions for cannabis possession and other offensesContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":458,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18,81],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58781"}],"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\/458"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58781"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58781\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":58782,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58781\/revisions\/58782"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58781"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58781"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58781"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}