Wash. bill would drop 200,000 pot possession charges
By: Jim Camden, The Spokesman-Review
OLYMPIA, Wash – Washington could wipe out as many as 200,000 convictions for misdemeanor marijuana possessions for adults who don’t have anything else on their criminal records.
A proposal in the Senate calls for automatic clemency for anyone over 21 convicted of marijuana possession after Jan 1, 1998, the year that voters legalized the drug for medicinal use. A person with multiple misdemeanor marijuana possession charges would be eligible for having their record wiped clean but a person with any other crime on their record would not.
“Things that are legal now should be vacated from previous convictions,” Sen. Joe Nguyen, D-West Seattle, said. “This is really a matter of equity and justice.”
