When California voters approved Proposition 64 in November 2016, they OK’d more than the legalization of recreational marijuana. They authorized allowing people to petition the judicial system to have their old pot convictions expunged.
A bill – passed Wednesday by the state Senate and now awaiting Gov. Jerry Brown’s signature – provides a framework to make such expungements possible.
The legislation, called AB 1793, requires the state Department of Justice to scour California’s crime records and find past cannabis convictions that are eligible to be expunged, as well as felony pot-related convictions that, under Prop. 64, should be downgraded to misdemeanors.
That information is then passed on to county prosecutors, who have until July 1, 2020, to review and determine whether expunging or downgrading a conviction is appropriate. The bill says prosecutors can challenge the action if the person who would benefit from it “does not meet the eligibility requirements or presents an unreasonable risk to public safety.”
There are more than 218,000 convictions that could be eligible to either be wiped out or downgraded, according to an estimate from the state justice department. …
i have no problem with pot being legal since it is far less dangerous than alcohol , most of the time. But , to allow people to go back in time at the expense of the Citizens of California to change what was a criminal offence at the time is bull durham . We cannot afford to go retroactive back to the beginning of time to change records. Think about this, if this is allowed to stand then all those people can sue for false arrest and or imprisonment , right ?
This could literally cost us 100s of Millions of dollars even if there are no lawsuits . I guess if you want to pay even more taxes to fund this nonsense then YOU pay for it but don’t ask the rest of California to pay for another idiotic law.
Does this, AB 1793, apply only to the use of State sponsored Pot ?
Isn’t this conflict of interest for the Legislature?