Illinois governor J.B. Pritzker has made a big move this week, expunging nearly a million marijuana arrest records and pardoning thousands more.
The governor announced on Thursday that thousands of pardons had been issued for low-level marijuana convictions and that nearly 500,000 non-felony marijuana-related charges had been expunged.
Pritzker’s office said the governor ssued pardons for 9,129 low-level cannabis conviction records; and the arrest records have been expunged by the Illinois State Police (ISP).
492,192 cannabis arrest records were expunged on New Year’s Eve which means the ISP has completed its automatic expungement process four years early; its statutory deadline is Jan. 1, 2025.
“Statewide, Illinoisans hold hundreds of thousands low-level cannabis-related records, a burden disproportionately shouldered by communities of color,” Pritzker stated. “We will never be able to fully remedy the depth of that damage. But we can govern with the courage to admit the mistakes of our past — and the decency to set a better path forward.”
Prtizker made the move just in time as the Cannabis Regulation and Tax Act that he signed on May 31, 2019, mandates that 47,000 cannabis-related arrest records between 2013 and 2019 be expunged by Jan. 1, 2021.
Over 20,000 cannabis convictions have also been pardoned under this law.
Only DuPage, Kane, Knox, McHenry, McLean, Peoria, Rock Island, Will and Winnebago counties of the state’s 102 counties, have completed expungements at the local level.
The remaining counties have until Jan. 1, 2025, to complete expungement of their non-felony cannabis related arrest records.
“As we near the end of the first year of Illinois’ new legal cannabis industry, I am heartened by the progress we have made towards undoing the harms dealt by the failed war on drugs,” Toi Hutchinson, senior advisor to the governor for cannabis control, stated.
“We are one year into what will be an ongoing effort to correct historic wrongdoings. The administration remains committed to working with legislators to address any challenges to equity and on building an industry that re-invests in our state’s communities.”
