New Jersey lawmakers are considering a bill that would expunge the criminal records for previous low-level marijuana offenses if the state legalizes or decriminalizes recreational marijuana use.
Assemblywoman Annette Quijano says a marijuana charge has a detrimental effect on an individual’s opportunity to access higher education, gainful employment, and housing support.
“If we are to allow for legal possession and use of marijuana as many other states have done, then we have to ask ourselves if it’s morally just to allow those individuals to continue to carry the scarlet letter and is it in our best interests as a state.”
Jon-Henry Barr, the past president of the New Jersey State Municipal Prosecutors Association, supports an expedited expungement process.
“It simply serves no salutary purpose in my opinion as an experienced municipal prosecutor to maintain someone with a criminal record for having possession of a joint or even several times of getting caught with possession of a joint of marijuana. It simply doesn’t do anything to advance our interests as New Jerseyans or as society in general.”