50,000 Oregonians Can Have Marijuana Charges Removed From Their Record
Tuesday, November 10, 2015
This summer, Governor Kate Brown (D) signed Senate Bill 844 into law. The law allows for Class B or Class C felony convictions to be expunged.
In order to be eligible, candidates must also have not been convicted for any other crime and must have complied with all conditions of their judgment, according to Section Two of the Bill. Section Three states that cases in which marijuana was a factor can be expunged if the defendant was under the age of 21 at the time of conviction.
“It’s a new day in Oregon,” Portland attorney Amy Margolis, executive director of the Oregon Cannabis Association, told GoLocal. “Oregon is taking obsolete marijuana offenses off the books. They shouldn’t remain on people’s records, either. Having a record can make it hard to get a job or even a place to live. And it can bar people from participating in Oregon’s new legal cannabis industry. We want to make sure there is a level playing field when recreational retail business licensing begins in January.”
How Does it Work?
Greg Kafoury, a Portland-based attorney, told GoLocal that the rule doesn’t just extend to those with pot convictions.
“People with any Class C Felony or misdemeanor can apply for expungement if it has been more than three years since they were convicted, or one year if they were under 21, and they have followed the conditions of the conviction,” Kafoury said.
In order to start the process of getting a conviction expunged, according to Karynn Fish, an attorney, and spokeswoman with the Oregon Cannabis Association, who is offering a series of free clinics on the subject, said those that are eligible must submit a motion in the county where they were convicted and pay a $252 fee to the court and a $80 fee to the Oregon State Police.
After the motion is filed, Fish said, the county’s District Attorney has three to six months to comment on a motion. If no comment is filed, which happens in most cases, the offenses will be expunged.
The Impact of Expungements
Kafoury said that for those that do get their records wiped clean of prior offenses, the decision has a big impact. He related the policy to the idea that “everyone makes mistakes,” and said it is designed not to punish someone for life over a minor crime they committed a long time ago.
“It's more than just amnesty or forgiveness” Kafoury said. “It's a legal declaration that the conviction never happened.”
Fish said that expungable convictions, while relatively minor infractions, can have disastrous effects on people for years.
“We know that having any kind of conviction on your record makes life a lot more difficult,” Fish said. “it makes it much more challenging to get or keep a job, find housing or be accepted for student loans or other types of loans.”
Fish pointed out that marijuana offenses disproportionately affect minority residents in Oregon. According to the ACLU, despite the fact that African-Americans do not use drugs at a higher rate than white people, they were two or three times as likely to be charged and convicted with a crime surrounding marijuana or other drugs.
Fish also said that marijuana convictions often carried an extra layer of stigma.
“There really is an extra stigma attached to it because of the war on drugs,” Fish said. “People shouldn’t have to pay their whole lives because of one bad decision, particularly given how views of marijuana have changed in Oregon.”
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