DENVER (CN) – Seven years after becoming the first U.S. state to legalize marijuana, Colorado continues to struggle with what to do about old pot convictions.
“I’m running out of time,” said Pedro Ortiz, a New Jersey man who recently lost a job over a decade-old dime bag conviction in Colorado.
Ortiz moved to the Denver suburb of Aurora in 2008, taking a job as a cook. After a divorce and the death of his mother, Ortiz said he felt alone and fell on hard times.
He says things are different now.
It is now legal for adults aged 21 and over to possess up to an ounce of marijuana in Colorado. A 2017 law allows people with prior convictions for marijuana possession to seal their records in cases where what they were charged with is now legal. Denver and Boulder counties have set up legal clinics targeting the issue and waived the $65 filing fee for petitioners.
Colorado voters enacted Amendment 64 in 2012 legalizing recreational marijuana and eliminating one of the most prosecuted crimes from the legal system. According to a 2012 FBI report, 658,231 people were arrested for marijuana possession nationwide and 92,593 others were charged with selling or growing marijuana. By comparison, 521,196 people were arrested that year for committing violent crimes.
Dougherty estimates 4,000 residents of Boulder County are eligible to have their charges removed and records sealed. After running two free legal clinics, his office met with 21 individuals and found 9 eligible under the program.
Of 10,000 potentially eligible persons, Denver has received 176 applications since Jan. 1, of which 38 are eligible to have records sealed.
By contrast, the San Francisco, California, District Attorney’s Office expunged 9,362 criminal records last month after deciding to automate the process. California legalized the use and sale of recreational marijuana in 2018.
“California’s state statute is arguably the most progressive as it does not place the burden on those convicted to petition the court, but instead mandates the state to review prior criminal convictions and to automatically expunge those cases that are eligible,” said Paul Armentano, deputy director of the marijuana advocacy organization NORML.
Criminal convictions affect a person’s chances of securing a loan, a job, housing, admission into college, and even clearance by the Transportation Security Administration.
Commercial truck driver Ivan Newborn recalled the relief when his records were sealed this past October.
But critics of expungement say that is exactly the point.
Others argue lasting criminal records unnecessarily lengthen the punishment.
Attendees of Boulder’s “Moving On From Marijuana” clinic this past January received help navigating the legal system, which can be difficult and expensive for outsiders. Many attorneys charge up to $2,500 for their services.
“I’m here on behalf of my adult son who isn’t able to appear on behalf of himself,” said Jan V., who read about the legal clinic in the Longmont Times Call. Jan, who asked that her last name not be used, said her son’s case occurred in 1998 when he was 18.
A case might be made for expunging marijuana cultivation or distribution charges, but Colorado law only allows expungement of minor-in-possession convictions involving less an ounce.
The night Pedro Ortiz was arrested and charged with marijuana possession, he was driving his friend’s car and got stopped for speeding.
Ortiz paid a $235 fine on top of $300 for bail and thought the whole thing was behind him until a criminal background check for a school maintenance job unearthed the old conviction. He lost the job and his apartment.
He hired a lawyer, and a month later Judge John Wheeler of the 18th Judicial District found “unwarranted, adverse consequences to the defendant outweigh the public interest in retaining the records” ordered Ortiz’s records sealed.