EDITOR’S NOTE: NJ Cannabis Insider is hosting an in-person day-long conference and networking event Sept. 15 at the Carteret Performing Arts Center, featuring many of the state’s leading power players. Early-bird tickets now on sale.
Hundreds of thousands of people charged with or convicted of marijuana offenses in New Jersey can have them cleared from their records — but getting that relief will likely still take time.
A state Supreme Court order last week laid out a process for vacating, expunging and dismissing certain marijuana offenses from people’s records. These include selling less than one ounce of marijuana and possession, as well as related crimes like possession of drug paraphernalia, being under the influence, failing to turn over marijuana or being or possessing marijuana while in vehicle.
It’s progress in theory, but challenging in practice. As NJ Advance Media previously reported, expungements are complicated and often take more than a year to finalize.
“There’s still a lot of unknowns,” said Chirali Patel, an attorney and cannabis advocate who founded Blaze Responsibly. “All it’s saying is, ‘we’re reiterating what was in the decriminalization bill.’”
Gov. Phil Murphy signed a package of laws in February that together ended arrests for possession of marijuana and set up the framework for a regulated, legal weed industry. Those laws also set the grounds for clearing records of people previously charged with marijuana offenses. The order is intended to implement parts of the decriminalization law scheduled to take effect.
The court order estimates as many 360,000 people are eligible to have their records cleared. Other estimates have put the number closer to 1 million.
But New Jersey’s expungement system is both burdensome on the filer and overburdened by demand. Attorneys familiar with the process say many people give up when running into hurdles. Without the help of a lawyer, it can be nearly possible for people to get old crimes cleared from their records.
Murphy signed another law to overhaul the expungement system in late 2019. It established an e-filing system, eliminated fees and allocated $15 million to expand the workforce needed to process petitions.
It also ushered in what experts see as the “gold standard” of expungement: “clean slate.” This allows people to get multiple charges cleared, as long as they are not among the most serious.
Eventually, this law will set up an automatic expungement process that seals records without people even having to file. No one knows when the new system will become available.
“Technological modifications are being made to a number of the Judiciary’s case management systems to enable implementation of the automated processes for these eligible cases as expeditiously as possible,” the notice said.
Without expungements, people can struggle to get jobs, housing and student loans due to years-old charges on their records. Social justice advocates have called for and praised reform efforts that make expungements easier to access.
The order applies not just to old records, but also to pending cases, those awaiting sentencing and those currently serving sentences, either in prison, probation or parole.
Scott Gorman, a defense attorney with Maitlin Maitlin Goodgold Brass & Bennett in Millburn said he worried people would not know if their case was eligible or had been expunged. The notice states that a process is being developed to field inquiries about expungement status, but did not give other details.
But for now, people with marijuana offenses on their records will have to apply for expungements and wait for them to be granted.
“If you were charged with possession of marijuana in the past, then your records are automatically going to be expunged. That’s great in theory,” Gorman said. “But the problem with that is now you’re left at the mercy of the automated system that’s kind of mythical at this point.”
Amanda Hoover may be reached at ahoover@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @amandahoovernj.
