Arizona Launches Website to Help Clear Cannabis-Related Criminal Records

The Arizona Supreme Court has launched a new website to help individuals determine whether they are eligible to have their cannabis-related criminal records cleared for crimes that are included under the state’s 2020 voter-approved legalization law, KJZZ reports.

Proposition 207’s provisions allow the sealing of criminal records for possessing, consuming, or transporting two-and-a-half ounces or less of cannabis, of which not more than 12.5 grams was in the form of concentrate; possessing, transporting, cultivating, or processing six or fewer cannabis plants at a primary residence for personal use; and possessing, using, or transporting cannabis cultivation, manufacturing, processing, or consumption paraphernalia, according to the website.

Aaron Nash, communications director for the Arizona Supreme Court, estimated that tens of thousands of Arizonans could be eligible to have their records sealed.

Applicants can begin filing the forms on July 12.

An American Civil Liberties Union report published last year found that Hispanic people in Maricopa County who were charged with simple cannabis possession were sentenced to significantly longer incarceration terms than their white and Black counterparts and that Black people convicted of personal possession of drug paraphernalia received longer sentences than white and Hispanic people.

Maricopa County garnered national attention as a hub for institutional racism under the direction of former Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who was convicted of criminal contempt of court after refusing to stop racially profiling people when detaining “individuals suspected of being in the U.S. illegally.” Arpaio was pardoned of that crime by former President Donald Trump in 2017.

Adult-use cannabis sales began in the state in January after voters approved the reforms in the 2020 General Election. The migration from medical to adult-use sales was just two months, the fastest by any state.