SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — A Democratic lawmaker wants to make it easier for Californians with marijuana convictions to reduce or erase their records as the state moves into the next phase of legalized cannabis.
Assemblyman Rob Bonta, D-Oakland, introduced legislation on Tuesday that would require county courts to automatically expunge eligible records. It's one of several efforts to build on the choice California voters' made to legalize marijuana despite fresh threats from the federal government.
Voters approved the ability to wipe criminal marijuana conviction records in 2016 as part of Proposition 64, which legalized marijuana and retroactively erased and reduced some pot-related criminal penalties from felonies to misdemeanors.
Existing law requires people with convictions to initiate the process themselves. But many people don't, either because they're unaware it's an option or because it can be complicated and costly. As of September 2017, around 5,000 people had applied for a change to their records, according to state data. That's a fraction of the people that experts estimate are eligible.
Top image: © Zack Frank | Adobe Stock
