That’s the amount of marijuana in ounces that was sold, distributed, or possessed with intent to sell that’s now eligible to be expunged from a convicted person’s criminal record due to a new New Jersey law that went into effect Oct. 1.
In addition, “convictions for third or fourth degree crimes involving sale or distribution or possession with intent to sell a controlled dangerous substance may be expunged where the court finds expungement is in the public interest, considering the nature of the offense and the character and conduct of the petitioner since the conviction.”
Yes We Cannabis!
Gurbir Grewal wants to reform NJ’s marijuana laws. He was set to issue new prosecution guidelines, a sort of decrim-light, when Jersey City prosecutor Jake Hudnut scooped him.
That delighted cannabis activists but frustrated the Attorney General who maintains the Jersey City model, no matter how instinctively pleasing to reformers, actually diminishes the discretion of law enforcement.
In both Pennsylvania and New Jersey, recent state Supreme Court rulings have made it markedly easier for police to search for marijuana. The high courts in both states have decreed that police only need smell the pungent odor of weed to conduct an immediate search — without the need for a warrant from the judge. "It opened the floodgates," said Eric Morrell, a defense lawyer based in New Brunswick, N.J.
Some police commanders say they have stepped up drug enforcement overall to tackle the opioid epidemic, and marijuana arrests are up accordingly.
Unequal application of the law and other harms of marijuana prohibition affect millions of New Jerseyans every year. DPA led the campaign to pass legislation which created New Jersey’s medical marijuana program. We are currently working on the New Solutions Marijuana Reform Campaign to legalize, tax and regulate marijuana like alcohol for adults in New Jersey.
New Jersey’s marijuana laws have had a disproportionate impact on communities of color. Marijuana legalization in New Jersey must be fair and equitable and must address past disproportionate harms to communities of color.
1. Recognize There is a Limit to the Tax Burden the Industry Can Bear
Over 3,000 low-level marijuana cases were thrown out Wednesday as Manhattan's top prosecutor furthered a shift away from arresting and prosecuting many people for small-time pot offenses in the nation's biggest city.
This weekend, the New York Police Department implemented a new marijuana policy intended to finally put a stop to the disproportionate enforcement of prohibition laws against communities of color.
Tens of thousands of low-level marijuana convictions could be erased with the OK of Brooklyn's top prosecutor, under a new plan for wiping records clean of offenses no longer being prosecuted in parts of the nation's biggest city.
District Attorney Eric Gonzalez announced Friday he is inviting people to request conviction dismissals. He expects prosecutors will consent in the great majority of a potential 20,000 cases since 1990 and an unknown number of older ones.
Nearly 40 years ago, juveniles accounted for about a third of all marijuana possession detentions in New Jersey. But now, those under 18 are almost an afterthought. Fewer than 9 percent of all pot busts in 2016 involved juveniles, according to the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting Program.
Instead, more resources are being devoted to catching their parents — and grandparents — with weed.
Signaling a change in state policy dating back over 50 years, Attorney General Gurbir Grewal authorized municipal prosecutors to consider social justice grounds as a basis for exercising discretion to amend or dismiss possessory marijuana cases.
“To the extent permitted by law, a municipal prosecutor should consider the impact of adverse collateral consequences of a conviction based on the specific circumstances or factors presented by the defendant or elicited by the court,” announced Attorney General Grewal.