Washington, D.C. lawmakers have approved a criminal justice reform bill that consists of a freshly included amendment to routinely expunge marijuana possession information for offenses that took position in advance of the District enacted a minimal hashish legalization law in 2014.

The D.C. Council unanimously passed the Next Possibility Modification Act, including the marijuana-concentrated provision, in a 13- vote on Tuesday, sending it to Mayor Muriel Bowser (D).

Prior to passage, lawmakers adopted an amendment from Councilmember Christina Henderson (D) that clarified the expungements language, specifying that information linked to possession of “any amount of marijuana” just before the legalization law took result in February 2015 would need to have to be mechanically expunged by the courts.

The explanation for the amendment is that D.C. legalized possession of up to two ounces of hashish, but criminal data do not usually replicate the quantity, “so the court and litigants can not inform from the history by itself irrespective of whether the record qualifies as decriminalized conduct,” the rationale section of the amendment claims.

“Including all straightforward possession, fairly than just possession of 2 ounces or a lot less, clarifies the intent and makes it possible for the court and litigants to far better apply the law,” it proceeds

I am introducing an modification to 2nd Chance that would need the computerized expungement of any criminal data of basic possession of cannabis prior to the enactment date of Initiative 71, which decriminalized the possession of two ounces or fewer of marijuana.

— CM Christina Henderson (@CMCHenderson) December 20, 2022

Here’s the complete text of the revised expungements portion: 

“The Court docket shall order automatic expungement of all felony records and courtroom proceedings connected only to citations, arrests, costs, or convictions for the fee of a prison offense that has subsequently been decriminalized, legalized, or held to be unconstitutional by the Courtroom of Appeals for the District of Columbia or the Supreme Courtroom of the United States, or documents similar only to very simple possession for any quantity of marijuana in violation of D.C. Code § 48-904.01(d)(1) ahead of February 15, 2015…”

Expungements would need to have to be processed by January 1, 2025, or “within 90 times after termination of the situation by the prosecutor or last disposition, whichever is later.”

Earlier, the monthly bill broadly claimed that the court “shall order automatic expungement of all legal information and courtroom proceedings similar only to citations, arrests, fees, or convictions for the commission of a legal offense that has subsequently been decriminalized, legalized, or held to be unconstitutional.”

The vote on the criminal justice legislation arrived on the similar working day the the District Council unanimously permitted a independent monthly bill to make sweeping changes to the medical cannabis software in the nation’s funds. That includes eliminating hashish organization licensing caps, delivering tax relief to operators, further more promoting social equity and creating new regulated small business groups this sort of as on-web-site intake facilities and hashish cooking classes.

It would also present a pathway for recent “gifting” operators that provide non-hashish merchandise in trade for “free” marijuana solutions to enter the certified marketplace, while empowering officials to crack down on these who continue on to operate illegally. And it would codify a policy making it possible for grownups to self-certify as health-related hashish people.

While a lot of advocates have welcomed the legislative efforts to increase hashish accessibility and aid expungements in the District, they’ve also continued to press for an conclusion to the federal blockade that’s prevented D.C. from developing a controlled cannabis current market.

But that effort seems to have failed for the 2023 Fiscal Calendar year, with congressional lawmakers unveiling a ultimate expending offer early Tuesday early morning that retains the rider, even though the two the Property and Senate experienced omitted it in their respective variations earlier this 12 months.

Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) explained to Marijuana Second on Tuesday that she’s “really disappointed” that Democratic Home and Senate majorities failed to take away the rider.

Immediately after President Joe Biden issued a proclamation in Oct pardoning Us residents who’ve dedicated federal cannabis possession offenses, as nicely as men and women who’ve violated the law in D.C., Norton identified as on the president to go more by federally legalizing hashish and permitting the District build a industrial cannabis current market and grant clemency on its personal.

The congresswoman reported the ongoing regional ban, which was maintained in Biden’s very first two spending plan proposals, signifies a “shocking violation of D.C. house rule by a Democratic administration.”

A coalition of local, condition and countrywide advocacy organizations lately asked the U.S. legal professional basic to formally undertake a plan of non-enforcement to allow for the District to legalize marijuana gross sales even in mild of the ongoing congressional ban.

A poll released in September discovered that D.C. voters strongly assistance cannabis legalization and oppose a crackdown on the cannabis “gifting” market place that’s emerged in the absence of controlled profits.

Bowser, Norton and other elected officers in the metropolis have routinely criticized Congress for singling out the District and depriving it of the means to do what a rising variety of states have accomplished without the need of federal interference.

Norton told Cannabis Moment in a cell phone job interview in July that she was “fairly optimistic” that the rider would not be provided in the final paying offer. She extra that the D.C. self-certification coverage is an “effective workaround” right up until then.

Meanwhile, the mayor signed a monthly bill in July that bans most workplaces from firing or in any other case punishing employees for cannabis use.

The reform is built to make upon on a preceding evaluate lawmakers authorized to shield local govt workforce against place of work discrimination thanks to their use of professional medical cannabis.

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