Los Angeles District Attorney Dismisses 60,000 Cannabis Convictions

1.2 min readPublished On: September 29th, 2021By News Team

LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles District Attorney’s office announced Monday that it will move to dismiss nearly 60,000 cannabis-related convictions about five years after California voters approved recreational cannabis.

Officials identified about 58,000-60,000 non-violent-cannabis cases that are eligible for dismissal, Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón said. The cases go back to the 1980’s. Gascón, who was elected district attorney in November, said the new dismissals would mean the possibility of better futures for thousands of people.

“It clears the path for them to find jobs, housing and other services that previously were denied to them because of unjust cannabis laws,” Gascón said in a statement.

The 66,000 cases dismissed last year relied on data from the state Justice Department, Gascón’s office said.

Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón

The 58,000 cases now being dismissed were found after a review of county court records, he said.

California voters in 2016 approved a measure to legalize recreational cannabis. Prosecutors and officials in other states have also moved to expunge or dismiss cannabis convictions after recreational cannabis became legal.

New York began automatically expunging criminal records of people with certain cannabis convictions after recreational cannabis was legalized this year. A 2019 law decriminalized possession and led to records’ being expunged.

Eighteen states and Washington, D.C., have legalized recreational cannabis, but not all have set up legalized sales yet.

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