After one-year of legalizing recreational marijuana, Illinois is expunging nearly half-a-million criminal cannabis cases.
Governor J.B. Pritzker says they’ll never be able to fully remedy the depth of the damage caused by the war on drugs, but can govern with the courage to admit the mistakes of our past and the decency to set a better path forward.
As part of the state’s law that legalized licensed sales of marijuana last year, about 492-thousand non-felony cannabis-related arrest records were wiped clean.
Also, over nine-thousand pardons were issued for low-level cannabis convictions.
More cases are expected to be expunged over time as many county court clerks and the state have until January 1st, 2025 to expunge their cannabis arrest records.
