Thousands of Californians’ marijuana convictions are being automatically dismissed by a top prosecutor under the state’s new legal cannabis system, and thousands more could have convictions or punishments reduced.
More than 3,000 people will automatically have misdemeanor marijuana convictions wiped from their records, and 4,000 felony cases will be reconsidered for reduction to misdemeanor convictions, San Francisco District Attorney George Gascon announced Wednesday.
Gascon said the move, which applies only to convictions from San Francisco dating back to 1975, will make it easier for people with criminal records to get jobs and help right the wrongs of the War on Drugs, which his office said disproportionately targeted minority communities. Gascon’s office hopes to finish the process by the end of the year.
“Long ago we lost our ability to distinguish the dangerous from the nuisance, and it has broken our pocket books, the fabric of our communities, and we are no safer for it,” Gascon said. “A criminal conviction can be a barrier to employment, housing and other benefits, so instead of waiting for the community to take action, we’re taking action for the community.”
More: California city to use pot shops to fight racial inequities
California’s new legal cannabis system allows anyone with a misdemeanor pot conviction to petition to have it dismissed. However, after so few eligible people applied, Gascon said he decided to make the move himself.
“This isn’t just an urgent issue of social justice here in California, it’s a model for the rest of the nation,” said Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, who applauded Gascon’s decision.
California’s new cannabis system legalized the growing and sale of small amounts of marijuana for personal consumption. Proponents of the November 2016 ballot initiative argued that legalizing pot would help reduce the suffering of minority communities targeted by police. In 2011, 50% of all cannabis-related arrests in San Francisco were of black residents, even though they made up only 6% of the entire population, Gascon’s office said. Health surveys show white and black Americans use cannabis at roughly the same levels.
Gascon’s move is in line with a similar effort in nearby Oakland, where city officials have created a system through which longtime residents with marijuana convictions can get preferential treatment for marijuana sales licenses. Other states that have legalized marijuana specifically ban people with drug convictions from working in the field or limit their ability to participate by requiring extensive documentation of their history.
Nine states and the District of Columbia have legalized recreational marijuana use, but cannabis remains illegal at the federal level and is listed by the Drug Enforcement Agency as a Schedule 1 controlled substance, defined as drugs with no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse.
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