Until states allow the immediate and automatic expungement of criminal records for all people with convictions for low-level marijuana possession, grant pardons for and release those who remain incarcerated on charges that are no longer criminalized, allow those with prior convictions to be first in line for licensing and job opportunities, and make current license holders commit to equitable hiring practices, there should be no further growth of the state-sanctioned cannabis industry. With the First Step Act now passed, it is important to turn to next steps in the fight for a fair criminal justice system. We must address the bill’s shortcoming — its failure to decriminalize marijuana at the federal level.
For those without a past criminal conviction, the cannabis industry is booming in the 33 states that have legalized marijuana for recreational or medicinal purposes. The industry is projected to balloon to $50 billion by 2026, and its job market is projected to grow 700 percent by 2020. But the growth of this industry has come at the expense of millions of people who bear the resulting impact from a criminal record tied to low-level marijuana possession, not to mention those who remain incarcerated.
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African Americans and Latinos are seeing no material benefit from our nation’s thriving cannabis industry. Legal marijuana is an overwhelmingly white industry whose promises on racial equity have been left unfulfilled. Few racial minorities stand to profit from the cannabis industry’s growth because most states bar access to anyone with a criminal record. While marijuana use is roughly equal according to race, African Americans are almost four times more likely to be arrested for unlawful marijuana possession than whites. As case in point, people of color made up to 86 percent of marijuana arrests in New York in 2017. These figures stand in stark contrast to estimates suggesting that those who hold licenses today in this growing industry are roughly 99 percent white.
Marijuana put people of color in prison
More than 70 million people with criminal records today, a disproportionate number of whom are African American or Latino, remain beleaguered by criminal records. They are not only banned from participation in the cannabis industry in many places, but also encounter barriers accessing jobs, housing and educational opportunities. Some remain behind bars today, including at the federal level, serving long sentences, for conduct that is no longer a crime in a growing segment of the country.Today’s cannabis industry is one that emerged in the shadows of the War on Drugs — a legal regime that unleashed law enforcement on communities of color and entangled vast numbers of people of color in a justice system that imposed harsh criminal sentences for low-level possession.
Further expansion should be suspended by barring the issuance of further licenses. Additionally, a significant share of tax revenue generated from the industry should be specifically directed to helping those with convictions and most impacted by the War on Drugs get back on their feet.
Waiting for Congress to decide will take too long
During his confirmation hearing, William Barr, President Trump’s nominee for Attorney General, suggested that he would not enforce federal marijuana laws on individuals or companies that already comply with that state’s marijuana laws around the legalization of adult use and medical use cannabis.Barr also suggested that he would support a federal law banning Marijuana, that he noted would be up to the Congress to decide.
Some jurisdictions have already started the process of vacating their misdemeanor marijuana convictions. In December, Boulder County, Colorado announced plans to expunge past convictions of low-level marijuana crimes from criminal records. In April, Seattle City Attorney Pete Holmes announced that he will ask the Seattle Municipal Court to vacate all convictions and dismiss marijuana possessions prosecuted before legalization began statewide in 2012. The court passed the motion in September. Seattle’s move follows an announcement by San Francisco District Attorney George Gascón, who vowed to dismiss 3,038 misdemeanor marijuana charges and would consider reducing 4,900 felony marijuana charges. These actions are great, and provide a path forward for local jurisdictions, but waiting for broader political will to develop is not enough.
We must end inequality before more legalization
I issued a letter to hundreds of officials in a dozen states across the country that have legalized recreational marijuana urging them to take action to expunge these records. My request was met with wildly divergent responses. In some states, district attorneys claimed that they could not act without legislative authorization, while other DAs in the same state have used discretion to act. California is perhaps the best example of this patchwork response. In other states, officials claimed that they could only respond on a case-by-case basis after impacted individuals submitted expungement petitions for consideration. The legal costs tied to such petitions makes this option impractical and beyond reach for many.All further expansion of the cannabis industry must cease until we can correct the gross racial inequities and injustices that have come to define it, especially while people remain incarcerated for cannabis offenses that are no longer illegal and are forced to suffer needlessly and lose opportunities unjustly. Those impacted should be given first-in-line access to licensing and job opportunities in this booming industry. It is essential that these actions are taken now to bring overdue relief to those whose lives were destroyed by the heavy hand of the criminal justice system.
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