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The governor of Pennsylvania has issued 2,540 pardons during his tenure, and at least a quarter of those were for people with prior marijuana convictions, his office announced on Thursday.<\/p>\n
As Gov. Tom Wolf (D) prepares for the end of his tenure next week, he\u2019s touting his record as the governor who has granted the most clemency in the state\u2019s history\u2014with 369 pardons this week alone.<\/p>\n
Wolf\u2019s clemency total includes 232 people who qualified for relief under a cannabis-specific pardon program that the state facilitated<\/a> late last year, as well as another 395 that were part of a separate expedited review process for nonviolent marijuana-related offenses.<\/p>\n \u201cI have taken this process very seriously\u2014reviewing and giving careful thought to each and every one of these 2,540 pardons and the lives they will impact,\u201d Wolf said in a press release.\u201dEvery single one of the Pennsylvanians who made it through the process truly deserves their second chance, and it\u2019s been my honor to grant it.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cA record prevents positive forward motion in a person\u2019s life, and can spark a repetitive cycle of defeat,\u201d he said<\/a>. \u201cI firmly believe that with restored rights, pardoned Pennsylvanians prove themselves by stepping up and giving back to our communities.\u201d<\/p>\n While Wolf is touting the cannabis pardon project, advocates were left disappointed that only a few hundred of the more than 3,000 clemency applications submitted during the one-month window for the effort were approved by the state late last year.<\/p>\n The governor launched the statewide pardon initiative in October, celebrating it as an opportunity to let citizens have minor cannabis possession convictions cleared from their records.<\/p>\n The administration and Board of Pardons (BOP) touted the significant number of applications it received through the project, but something went awry.<\/p>\n There were\u00a0signs of potential issues in late October<\/a>, when the board initially voted to hold the roughly 3,500 applications they got under advisement until partnering state agencies could carry out a review to ensure that all eligible applicants were properly considered.<\/p>\n BOP Secretary Celeste Trusty had previously told Marijuana Moment that the board identified \u201cquite a few folks who entered incorrect data\u201d on their applications, which may have been due to accidentally entering the wrong docket number for their cannabis case or other minor errors on the online form.<\/p>\n THANK YOU, @GovernorTomWolf<\/a> It has been such a pleasure serving the Commonwealth during such a compassionate administration!https:\/\/t.co\/EzBOGWAo4U<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 celeste (@celeste_trusty) January 12, 2023<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n Former Lt. Gov. John Fetterman (D), who was sworn in to the U.S. Senate this month and previously served as chair of the state BOP, told Marijuana Moment in October that while the pardons would meaningfully benefit thousands of Pennsylvanians, \u201cthe only lasting relief will come when our Republican legislature finally decides to do the right thing and legalize it.\u201d<\/p>\n The former lieutenant governor previously said that he wanted to process cannabis clemency<\/a>\u00a0for as many people as possible before leaving office.<\/p>\n While pardons represent full forgiveness for the conviction, the governor\u2019s office has stressed that eligible people will still need to separately petition the courts to have their records formally expunged.<\/p>\n Trusty, Fetterman and U.S. Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) separately\u00a0talked about marijuana reform and the pardon program<\/a>\u00a0during the 5th annual Cannabis Opportunities Conference in Pennsylvania in September.<\/p>\n Fetterman said that \u201cPennsylvania is a place for a second chances\u201d and the initiative would \u201chelp people get pardons quickly for stupid weed convictions\u201d while the legislature stalls on legalization.<\/p>\n Advocates have some hope that legalization could advance in Pennsylvania this year<\/a> with a new pro-reform governor being elected, Democrats picking up seats in the House of Representatives and a number of Republican senators expressing support for the reform\u2014but GOP legislative leaders are still opposed.<\/p>\n The Pennsylvania pardon project launched just before President Joe Biden issued a proclamation granting a mass marijuana pardon for those who\u2019ve committed federal possession offenses.<\/p>\n Biden used the opportunity to encourage governors across the U.S. to grant cannabis clemency to people with state-level convictions, and some like\u00a0Oregon Gov. Kate Brown (D) have followed suit<\/a>.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Pennsylvania officials announced last month that they are awarding nearly $19 million in grants<\/a>, partially funded by medical marijuana tax revenue, to help substance misuse treatment professionals pay down their student loans.<\/p>\n Outside of the Keystone State, Connecticut officials recently launched a web portal to facilitate more cannabis record sealing after automatically processing relief for tens of thousands of people<\/a> at the beginning of the year. The governor, lieutenant governor and state lawmakers gathered at the Reentry Welcome Center in Hartford this week to tout the erasure of nearly 43,000 marijuana records, which was made possible as part of the legalization law that was enacted<\/a>\u00a0in 2021.<\/p>\n Also in the region, New York\u2019s first legal\u00a0adult-use marijuana sales got underway late last month<\/a>, with the inaugural purchase being made by the state\u2019s top cannabis regulator.<\/p>\n Rhode Island\u2019s first recreational cannabis sales started at the beginning of December<\/a>.<\/p>\n Federal Sentencing Commission Proposes New Marijuana Guidelines For Judges That Would Treat Past Convictions More Leniently<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n Photo courtesy of Chris Wallis \/\/ Side Pocket Images.<\/em><\/p>\n The post Pennsylvania Governor Touts Hundreds Of Marijuana Pardons As He Leaves Office<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
The governor of Pennsylvania has issued 2,540 pardons during his tenure, and at least a quarter of those were for people with prior marijuana convictions, his office announced on Thursday. As Gov. Tom Wolf (D) prepares for the end of his tenure next week, he\u2019s touting his record as theContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":458,"featured_media":60702,"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\/60701"}],"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=60701"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60701\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":60703,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60701\/revisions\/60703"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60702"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60701"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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\nRead More: Pennsylvania Governor Touts Hundreds Of Marijuana Pardons As He Leaves Office<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"