California lawmakers just passed a bill that would direct the state Department of Justice to automatically clear the records of hundreds of thousands of low-level cannabis offenders. AB 1793, proposed by Assemblymember Rob Bonta, would require DoJ officials to identify all eligible cannabis-related convictions between 1975 and 2016 and notify the relevant prosecutor by July 1st of next year. The individual prosecutors then have one year to decide whether they want to challenge any of these cases, or allow them to be expunged or reduced.
Proposition 64, the voter-approved measure that legalized adult-use cannabis in the Golden State, already allows low-level cannabis offenders to individually apply to have their convictions reduced or expunged, but the burden of undertaking this task is up to the individual. The petition process can require the assistance of a lawyer, who could charge up to $1,500, putting the process out of reach for many lower-income individuals.
“There’s a fee for requesting criminal records, a fee to file paperwork with the court,” Bonta explained to MERRY JANE. “There’s the time it takes off of work or from family to seek this relief in court. You might have to go to court multiple times, and you might even have to hire an attorney if the D.A. challenges your request. All of that was just way too burdensome.”