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The Hawaii House of Representatives has approved a bill to automatically expunge tens of thousands of arrest and conviction records for low-level marijuana possession cases.<\/p>\n
About four years after the state decriminalized possession of up to three grams of cannabis\u2014and as lawmakers consider a proposal this session to legalize marijuana\u2014the House passed the complementary expungements legislation from Rep. David Tarnas (D) on Tuesday, sending it to the Senate.<\/p>\n
While there\u2019s already a process in place to request record sealing from the courts, advocates say the process can be difficult to navigate, often requiring people to seek out legal counsel and pay court fees that can be prohibitive.<\/p>\n
This measure would automate the process, mandating that the state attorney general\u2019s office \u201cissue, without petition and on the department\u2019s own initiative, an expungement order annulling, canceling, and rescinding all criminal records, including records of arrest and any records of conviction\u201d for possession of up to three grams of marijuana.<\/p>\n
That would need to include records for civil violations, petty misdemeanor convictions, juvenile convictions, arrests, convictions and any pending charges.<\/p>\n
\u201cDespite the decriminalization, some persons still have prior arrest records or conviction records for related charges that affect their employment and housing options,\u201d the bill\u2019s<\/a> findings section says.<\/p>\n Under the legislation, the Hawaii Criminal Justice Data Center would be required to identify all cases eligible for expungement within 30 days of enactment and provide that information in biennial reports to the attorney general\u2019s office, county prosecuting attorneys, county police departments and each state court.<\/p>\n Within 60 days of receiving those lists, the attorney general\u2019s office would need to issue expungement orders for those records. Then, within one year of getting those orders, the judiciary would need to facilitate the relief.<\/p>\n Tarnas, the sponsor, said on Tuesday that \u201capproximately 30,000 people\u201d are estimated to be eligible for expungements under the proposal.<\/p>\n \u201cMany states have transitioned to a state-initiated record clearance process, including Utah, Michigan and Minnesota because we find that, if it\u2019s a petition-based system, most individuals don\u2019t go through the process,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s a very complicated process that is intimidating. And so that\u2019s why we\u2019re trying to initiate we\u2019re trying to establish a state-initiated record clearance process.\u201d<\/p>\n Frank Stiefel, senior policy associate at the Last Prisoner Project (LPP), submitted testimony in support of the legislation for a committee hearing this session, stating that \u201cno one should suffer the collateral consequences of cannabis criminalization.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHB 1595 ensures that individuals who continue to suffer the consequences of a penalty the state changed its mind about enforcing in 2019 are applied evenly so no one is left behind,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The expungements legislation passed the House on the same day that the Senate approved a bill to legalize and regulate adult-use marijuana in the state<\/a>, sending the proposal to the opposite chamber.<\/p>\n \u2014 Last year the\u00a0Senate passed a separate legalization bill<\/a>\u00a0that later stalled the House, but advocates are hopeful this year\u2019s proposal could get further. Gov. Josh Green (D) said last month that legalization is a \u201cbig social issue that remains\u201d to be addressed in the state, signaling that he\u2019d\u00a0likely sign a bill to end cannabis prohibition if lawmakers send him one<\/a>.<\/p>\n Democrats in control of Hawaii\u2019s Senate said in January that\u00a0cannabis legalization is one of their top priorities this legislative session<\/a>, framing the reform as a means to boost the state\u2019s economy.<\/p>\n Last April, the Hawaii legislature also approved a resolution calling on the governor to create a\u00a0clemency program for people with prior marijuana convictions on their records<\/a>.<\/p>\n As for other drug policy matters, lawmakers last month advanced a bill that would provide certain\u00a0legal protections to patients engaging in psilocybin-assisted therapy<\/a>\u00a0with a medical professional\u2019s approval. The measure would not legalize psilocybin itself but would instead create an affirmative legal defense for psilocybin use and possession in the case of doctor-approved use under the guidance of a trained facilitator.<\/p>\n Federal Marijuana Trafficking Cases Dropped Yet Again Amid State Legalization Push, U.S. Sentencing Commission Report Finds<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n The post Hawaii House Approves Bill To Automatically Expunge Marijuana Records, Sending It To Senate<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
The Hawaii House of Representatives has approved a bill to automatically expunge tens of thousands of arrest and conviction records for low-level marijuana possession cases. About four years after the state decriminalized possession of up to three grams of cannabis\u2014and as lawmakers consider a proposal this session to legalize marijuana\u2014theContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":458,"featured_media":73021,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18,81,126],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73020"}],"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=73020"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73020\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":73022,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73020\/revisions\/73022"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73021"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73020"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73020"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73020"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\nRead More: Hawaii House Approves Bill To Automatically Expunge Marijuana Records, Sending It To Senate<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"