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Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
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US: If States Legalize, Expungement Is Next Hurdle: Tiffany Kary Bloomberg Sunday 01 Nov 2020 Arizona, New Jersey among states voting on cannabis Nov. 3 Releasing prisoners whose crimes no longer illegal takes time Cannabis legalization is on the ballot in five states this Tuesday, and polling shows it’s likely to pass in most of them by a clear majority. What’s less clear is what happens to all the prisoners already incarcerated for possessing something that’s now legal. It’s an increasingly accepted view that you can’t have people serving time in jail for something that companies are freely profiting from. Especially when the prisoners are mostly Black, and the companies are primarily run by White executives. Black people are arrested for marijuana possession at 3.7 times the rate of White people, according to the American Civil Liberties Union. And it’s even higher in some of the states voting on legalization this coming Tuesday: In Montana, it’s 9.6 times; in South Dakota, it’s 5 times. Voters who back legalization for its tax benefits and the promise of new jobs are increasingly supporting changes to the law around past marijuana crimes. But when the handful of states vote on legalization this Nov. 3, expungement isn’t on the ballot, except partially in Arizona. Rather, any criminal justice reform will have to come via the legislative or rulemaking system, and that’s a lengthy process. Change of Heart More than half of N.J. voters support expunging all marijuana offenses Even if a state passes an expungement law, there’s the added challenge of actually locating prisoners. Some county-level records are still in paper form, said Sarah Gersten, executive director of the Last Prisoner Project, a non-profit that estimates there are 40,000 U.S. cannabis prisoners and aims to free every one of them. Meanwhile, prisoners still languish in jail in states that have already legalized sales. “There are thousands of people still incarcerated for cannabis offenses in California, Michigan, Colorado and Oregon,” Gersten said, citing around 2,000 alone in Michigan as of this year. relates to If States Legalize, Expungement Is Next Hurdle: Cannabis Weekly Musician Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter’s new cannabis brand has been highlighting the problems state-by-state cannabis laws pose. Source: Monogram Still, Gersten said, her group finds that local jurisdictions are often eager to help. Why? Follow the money: The cost of mass incarceration in the U.S. is around $182 billion a year, and even for non-violent marijuana offenders, it can be $40,000 annually just to keep them in jail, Gersten said. The reason some people want to help with something as controversial as prisoner releases, she observed, can be self-serving: “They know it’s an economic benefit.” Until there’s reform, cannabis companies are very aware that the state-by-state regulations are a sticky issue. Musician Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter’s new cannabis brand, Monogram, has been highlighting the issue by putting billboard trucks at state lines to point out the irony -- and the real danger -- of a product that’s illegal on only one side of border. They remind marijuana users to “enjoy responsibly,” where it’s legal -- and “avoid the bookings” where it’s not. QUOTE OF THE WEEK “You can’t just give a disenfranchised person a license and say: ‘We’re all equal now, do your job.’ They don’t have the same education or access to capital as someone from a cannabis company. You’re just putting a very superficial Band-aid on a much larger problem,” said Nishant Reddy, CEO of California-based cannabis investing firm Satya Capital and cannabis brand A Golden State. NUMBER OF THE WEEK Around $66 billion: Estimated size of the illegal marijuana market in the U.S., according to New Frontier Data. That’s compared to an estimated $19.1 billion legal market. WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW New Jersey looks set to become the biggest East Coast state to legalize recreational marijuana, bringing it more than $100 million in tax revenue. Conservative states are also heading to the polls on the issue. Three of the four states voting on recreational use are red ones: Arizona, Montana and South Dakota. Medical use is on the ballot in Mississippi and South Dakota. New Zealand has decided against legalizing the recreational use of cannabis, bucking a trend toward liberalization among some of its western peers. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-11-01/if-states-legalize-expungement-is-next-hurdle-cannabis-weekly
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