Missouri officials expunged over 100,000 marijuana cases during the first year after legalization. The latest numbers from the state show that. Some courts, however, missed the Friday deadline for expungements of felony convictions as clerks worked to review decades-old cases.
“The courts will need more time to complete the job and it could be years before all cases from the last century are expunged,” Dan Viets told FOX affiliate KVTI, in St. Louis. “We have had marijuana prohibition in Missouri for more than 100-years. Many older cases were never entered into a database. It will take a lot more physical effort to find those records in attics and boxes.
Viets stated in a Missouri NORML Press Release that the automatic expungement provisions is “one the most important parts” of the state marijuana law passed by voters last with a margin of 53-47.
He said that in addition to stopping about 20,000 marijuana arrests every year, the law requires the state government to undo the damage done to hundreds of thousands Missourians over the last 100 years.
It will take time to clear Missouri’s cannabis records that are eligible for expungement. The state has a long history of marijuana prohibition.
The older records of cases are not computerized. They have never been entered into any database. Missouri NORML stated that it would take physical work to find those records and cases to have them removed.
The group pointed out that the ballot initiative, now codified in Article XIV of the state Constitution provided money to expunge the adult-use marijuana sales tax, which is 6 percent.
The organization stated that the tax “has provided much more revenue to the State than should have been required to fund the hiring of additional staff in Circuit Clerks’ Offices across the state or to pay overtime to current staff members.”
The Missouri marijuana market has passed the $1 billion mark in sales for 2023. This includes adult-use marijuana and medical marijuana.
According to the law, it was up to the state to automatically expel misdemeanors by June 8, and felonies until December 8.
Viets, speaking to local TV station KoMU at the weekend, said that as of Monday this week there were more than 99,000. In the last year, on average, over 2,000 cases were expunged every week.
Viets told the station that counties that did not meet the deadline on Friday were in violation of state law. Legal action could be taken by way of a mandamus writ.
He said that by the deadline of June for misdemeanors, at least half of Missouri’s counties had not expunged any cases.
Viets stated that fewer cases were expunged in some of the smaller rural counties where there is less support for Amendment 3. There seems to be some correlation.
Missouri’s marijuana industry has been undergoing significant turmoil this year. Tens of thousands of products have been recalled due to the alleged illegal use of hemp derived cannabinoids imported from outside of the state. Last month, officials revoked the business license for Delta Extraction .
The incident has put state marijuana regulators in a bind regarding the practices at product testing laboratories. They had been under fire earlier this year for alleged “lab shopping”, where producers were allegedly seeking higher THC potency.
A union and another company, Retailer Point Management in Columbia (which operates as Shangri-La) , settled a dispute over 15 unfair labor practices. This is part of larger push by cannabis workers to organize the industry.
Last month, lawmakers said that the state’s marijuana regulatory had overstepped their powers when they set new rules for product branding and packaging intended to limit appeal to kids.
Businesses have also filed a suit recently to challenge the “stacked” local taxes, which they claim is unconstitutional.
Two Missouri Republicans filed a pair bills earlier this month to legalize medical use of psilocybin, and require clinical trials that explore the therapeutic potential.
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