The Missouri House has approved a bill where the records of medical marijuana patients for certain prior cannabis convictions could be expunged.
The legislation provides approved patients with the chance to expunge an unlimited number of past misdemeanor marijuana convictions or municipal violations.
The bill was sponsored by Rep. Ron Hicks (R) who has said, “Missouri has a chance to make history. He added, “This bill goes right in form with the things that we’re trying to do here in Missouri on the criminal justice side of things.”
The chances of passage are solid in the Senate, according to Hicks.
For qualifying patients, the bill will make “records and files maintained in any court proceeding in an associate or circuit division of the circuit court or in municipal court shall be confidential and only available to the parties or by order of the court for good cause shown.”
“The effect of such order shall be to restore such individual to the status he or she occupied prior to such arrest, plea, or conviction and as if such event had never taken place,” says a summary of the bill.
If the Senate approves the bill, it will then need to be signed by the governor.
