One of the more significant aspects of the bill were its proposals for expedited expungement and reinvestment in communities with disproportionate cannabis arrests rates. Can you further explain how those would work?
SB 2703 called for up to five counts of cannabis convictions to be expunged. It would allocate money from tax revenues into streamlining that expungement process. The immediate effect would have been tens of thousands of people with cannabis arrests having those offenses wiped away with the stroke of a pen. It would also allow those people to reengage with society by banning discrimination against them when they apply for jobs, housing, or student loans.
There was also a proposed 15-35% of revenues set aside to help disadvantaged minority groups, women, and veterans enter the industry. No other state has made this a goal or mandatory.
But for me, in the bigger picture this effort represented a jumping-off point to show other states how to improve their own laws, and it gave our state a say in how legalization could be implemented federally.