BOISE — A local Republican State Representative is teaming up with Democrats to give first-time marijuana offenders the chance to remove the criminal conviction from their record.
Rep. Bryan Zollinger, R-Idaho Falls, and Rep. John Gannon, D-Boise, proposed a bill that would give first-time offenders convicted of misdemeanor possession of one-half ounce of marijuana a chance to reduce the conviction to an infraction. The Bonneville County Prosecutor questioned what kind of message the bill would send to young people.
“So many young people get a (conviction) for, basically, personal use marijuana on them. It’s not large quantities. Then they have that misdemeanor on their record. It makes problems with joining the military, college applications, job applications and so the thought is just to—if they comply with the requirements—be able to have that (conviction) dismissed,” Zollinger said.
