ArticleThe International journal on drug policy2023
Clearing cannabis criminal records: A survey of criminal record expungement availability and accessibility among US States and Washington DC that decriminalized or legalized cannabis.
Article in The International journal on drug policy, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed.
- Cannabis policy priorities and public health: a survey of elected officials in California.BMC public health · 2026Article
- Cannabis Enforcement Lags Behind Alcohol: A National Study of Law Enforcement Practices in Legal and Nonlegal States.Journal of studies on alcohol and drugs · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundIn 2022, despite expanding state-level legalization, cannabis remained illegal at the federal level, driving drug offenses, and contact with the justice system. Cannabis criminalization disproportionately impacts minorities, and criminal records carry negative economic, health, and social consequences. Legalization prevents future criminalization but fails to assist existing record-holders. We surveyed 39 states and Washington DC where cannabis was decriminalized or legalized to determine record expungement availability and accessibility for cannabis offenders.
methodsWe performed a retrospective, qualitative survey of state expungement laws allowing record sealing or record destruction where cannabis use was decriminalized or legalized. Statutes were collected between February 25, 2021, and August 25, 2022, from state websites or NexisUni. We collected pardon information for two states from online state government resources. Materials were coded in Atlas.ti to determine if states had general, cannabis, and other drug conviction expungement regimes, petitions, or automated systems, waiting periods, and financial requirements. Codes were developed via inductive and iterative coding of materials.
resultsAmong places surveyed, 36 provided any conviction expungement, 34 provided general relief, 21 offered cannabis-specific relief, and 11 offered general drug relief, nonexclusively. Most states used petitions. Thirty-three general and 7 cannabis-specific programs required waiting periods. Nineteen general and 4 cannabis programs imposed administrative fees, and 16 general and one cannabis-specific program required legal financial obligations to be paid.
conclusionAmong the 39 states and Washington DC that decriminalized or legalized cannabis and offered expungement, more states relied on general rather than cannabis-specific systems, and the majority of these required record holders to petition for relief and imposed waiting periods and financial requirements. Research is needed to determine if automating expungement, reducing or eliminating waiting periods, and eliminating financial requirements may expand record relief for former cannabis offenders.
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