Intertwined with the legal weed debate is a discussion over expungements, the process by which an offender can have a crime retroactively and completely removed from their criminal record. An expunged crime is "considered not to have occurred," according to the New Jersey courts system, but requires a formal court petition and hearing.
But in the eyes of marijuana legalization advocates, placing the onus on the offender to get their slate wiped clean only continues the "drug war," American Civil Liberties Union New Jersey executive director Amol Sinha said in June.
"To shift the burden of clearing the stain of an unjust law onto the people who have suffered from it unnecessarily already while others reap economic benefits contradicts the principles of equity, fairness, and justice that make legalization such an urgent racial and social justice priority to begin with," said Sinha, testifying in support of a bill that would make most marijuana arrests eligible for automatic expungements.