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MARIJUANA MOMENT
MISSOURI EXPUNGES 100,000 CANNABIS OFFENSES IN FIRST YEAR OF LEGALIZATION, EVEN
AS SOME COURTS MISS DEADLINE
* Politics
* Missouri Expunges 100,000 Cannabis Offenses In First Year Of Legalization,
Even As Some Courts Miss Deadline
* Virginia Senator Is ‘Confident’ That Bill Legalizing Marijuana Sales Can
Reach The Governor’s Desk
* New Jersey Cuts Cost Of Medical Marijuana Registration As Enrollment
Declines
* Colombia Eliminates Fine For Drug Possession As Lawmakers Push For Urgent
Marijuana Legalization Vote Before End-Of-Year Deadline
* New York Governor Vetoes Bills To Allow Hemp Seed In Animal Feed, Calling
On State To Collect ‘More Information’ On Safety
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Dwindling Effects Over Time, Study Says
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By American Medical Association Study
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Impairment In Patients With Chronic Health Problems
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Discounted $4 Joint Offer
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Services Amid Federal Prohibition
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Selling Most Individual Cannabis Products In Any Month Since Launch
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Resistance From Management
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Black Friday
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POLITICS
MISSOURI EXPUNGES 100,000 CANNABIS OFFENSES IN FIRST YEAR OF LEGALIZATION, EVEN
AS SOME COURTS MISS DEADLINE
Published
10 hours ago
on
December 11, 2023
By
Ben Adlin
Missouri officials have expunged more than 100,000 marijuana cases from court
records during the first year of legalization, according the latest state
numbers. But some courts missed Friday’s deadline for felony expungements as
clerks work to review decades of old cases.
“The courts are going to need more time to finish the job, and in fact, it might
be years before all the cases from the past century are expunged,” lawyer Dan
Viets, a Missouri NORML coordinator and co-author of Missouri’s 2022
constitutional amendment legalizing marijuana, told FOX affiliate KVTI in St.
Louis. “We’ve had more than 100 years of marijuana prohibition in Missouri. Many
of the older cases have never been put on a database. So, it’s going to take a
lot of physical work to locate those paper records in boxes and attics and go
through them.”
Viets said in a Missouri NORML press release that the automatic expungement
provision is “one of the most significant parts” of the state marijuana law
approved by voters last year on a 53–47 margin.
“In addition to stopping approximately 20,000 marijuana arrests each year,” he
said, “the law now requires state government to undo much of the damage which
was inflicted on hundreds of thousands of Missourians during the past 100
years.”
The long history of prohibition in the state means it will take more time and
energy to completely clear Missouri’s records of cannabis offenses eligible to
be expunged.
“This is because older case records are not computerized. They have never been
placed on any database. It is going to require physical work to locate those
cases and records and have them expunged,” Missouri NORML said.
The group noted that the ballot measure, now codified as Article XIV in the
state Constitution, provided money for the expungement through the state’s 6
percent sales tax on adult-use marijuana.
The tax “has provided far more revenue to the state than should be required in
order to fund hiring additional staff or paying overtime to existing staff
members in the Circuit Clerks’ offices across the state,” the organization said.
Last month sales total marijuana sales in the Missouri passed the $1 billion
mark for 2023, which includes both adult-use and medical marijuana.
Of tax revenue received by the state, lawmakers recently announced that $17
million will be used to fund veterans health, drug treatment and legal aid.
Under the law, the state had until June 8 to automatically expunge misdemeanors
and until December 8 to clear felonies.
“As of Monday of this week, it was more than 99,000 cases,” Viets told local TV
station KOMU over the weekend. “And on average, for the past year, more than
2,000 cases have been expunged each week.”
Counties that missed Friday’s deadline, Viets added, are in violation of the
state’s Constitution, telling the station that legal action could be taken
through a writ of mandamus.
At the state’s June deadline for misdemeanor violations, he said, at least half
a dozen of Missouri’s 114 counties hadn’t expunged a single case.
“Some of the smaller, rural counties, where support for Amendment 3 is less,
that’s where fewer cases have been expunged,” Viets said. “There seems to be a
correlation.”
More broadly, Missouri’s marijuana system has experienced considerable
turbulence this year, with tens of thousands of products recalled over the
allegedly illegal use of hemp-derived cannabinoids from outside the state. Last
month, officials moved to revoke the business license of Delta Extraction, the
company at the center of the controversy.
The incident put state marijuana regulators on their heels regarding practices
at product testing labs, which had already come under fire earlier in the year
over alleged practices of “lab shopping” as producers sought higher THC potency
numbers.
Another company, Retailer Point Management, which does business as Shangri-La in
Columbia, recently settled a dispute with a union over 15 charges of unfair
labor practices. It’s part of a broader push by workers at cannabis businesses
to organize the industry.
Meanwhile, lawmakers last month said the state’s marijuana regulators
overstepped their authority when setting new rules on product branding and
packaging meant to limit appeal to children.
Businesses also recently filed a lawsuit challenging the “stacked” local and
county taxes that companies say is unconstitutional.
Earlier this month, meanwhile, two Missouri Republicans pre-filed a pair of
bills to legalize the medical use of psilocybin and require clinical trials
exploring the therapeutic potential of the psychedelic.
> Georgia Pharmacist ‘Very Disappointed’ With DEA Warning Letter On Dispensing
> Medical Marijuana, Saying It’s An Opioid Alternative
Marijuana Moment is made possible with support from readers. If you rely on our
cannabis advocacy journalism to stay informed, please consider a monthly Patreon
pledge.
Related Topics:featured
Don't Miss
Virginia Senator Is ‘Confident’ That Bill Legalizing Marijuana Sales Can Reach
The Governor’s Desk
Ben Adlin
Ben Adlin, a senior editor at Marijuana Moment, has been covering cannabis and
other drug policy issues since 2011. He was previously a senior news editor at
Leafly, an associate editor at the Los Angeles Daily Journal and a Coro Fellow
in Public Affairs. He lives in Seattle.
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New York Governor Vetoes Bills To Allow Hemp Seed In Animal Feed, Calling On
State To Collect ‘More Information’ On Safety
Missouri GOP Lawmakers File Bills To Legalize Psilocybin Therapy And Fund
Clinical Trials For 2024 Session
New Jersey Awards $15 Million To Community Violence Intervention, Funded In Part
By Marijuana Tax Revenue
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