100,000 marijuana convictions expunged in Missouri, year after recreational use legalized

Missouri expunged nearly 100,000 marijuana convictions from government records, a year after legalizing recreational use, KMBC reported.

Last year, a constitutional amendment promised to expunge non-violent misdemeanors by June 8 and felonies by December 8. When a record is expunged it's either sealed or destroyed. The individual charged is cleared of those charges.

“If they have that scarlet letter or that mark on their record, it puts them out of opportunities that they can get for safer housing, for better employment, for education opportunities,” Justice Gatson, leader of the Kansas City advocacy group Reale Justice Network told Missouri Independent, when the law passed last December.

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The responsibility to wipe those records fell on to county Circuit Clerks across the state but in May, several told FOX4 they couldn't make that deadline. Employees in each county would have to go through every case file to see if there are records that need to be expunged.

“We cannot meet that deadline, will not meet that deadline, it is not physically possible to meet that deadline,” Greene County Circuit Clerk Bryan Feemster told FOX4. “We wish that we could.”

While the courts appears to still be behind on expunging those records, advocates told KMBC, they're fine as long as they continue to make "good faith" efforts to wipe out those convictions.

“We have always said that as long as the courts, the circuit clerks in particular, are making a good faith effort to comply with the law, to get those cases expunged, that we'll be satisfied. They have not technically met the deadline. But on the other hand, we're dealing with a century of marijuana prohibition in Missouri. So, there are hundreds of thousands of cases,” Dan Viets, who wrote parts of the constitutional amendment told KMBC.

Viets said he anticipates expunging all the records could take years.

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Which states have legal recreational marijuana?

Here are the states where it is currently legal, or will soon become legal, to purchase marijuana for recreational use. Every state on this list had authorized the use for medicinal purposes prior to full legalization.

• Ohio: Legalized in 2023
• Minnesota: Legalized in 2023
• Delaware: Legalized in 2023
• Rhode Island: Legalized in 2022
• Maryland: Legalized in 2022
• Missouri: Legalized in 2022
• Connecticut: Legalized in 2021
• New Mexico: Legalized in 2021
• New York: Legalized in 2021
• Virginia: Legalized in 2021
• Arizona: Legalized in 2020 
• Montana: Legalized in 2020
• New Jersey: Legalized in 2020
• Vermont: Legalized in 2020
• Illinois: Legalized in 2019
• Michigan: Legalized in 2018
• California: Legalized in 2016
• Maine: Legalized in 2016 
• Massachusetts: Legalized in 2016
• Nevada: Legalized in 2016
• District of Columbia: Legalized in 2014
• Alaska: Legalized 2014
• Oregon: Legalized in 2014
• Colorado: Legalized in 2012
• Washington: Legalized in 2012