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posted by cmn32480 on Sunday October 04 2015, @11:30PM   Printer-friendly
from the lighten-up-man dept.

AlterNet reports

This week it was announced that Oregon will be expunging the old records of marijuana offenders, along with their new legalization plan. This measure is the farthest that a state has gone to date in regards to applying the new laws to old cases. However, for people who remain in jail for having a plant, the legalization plan does not go far enough.

According to the New York Times (paywall), people who have low-level felony or misdemeanor marijuana charges on their record that are at least ten years old will be eligible for expungement.

While the transition in Oregon is nowhere near what is needed for the hundreds of thousands who are still incarcerated, the aspect that allows for old cases to be expunged is at least a step in the right direction, and is helping people clear their records so they can avoid discrimination.

"Oregon is one of the first states to really grapple with the issue of what do you do with a record of something that used to be a crime and no longer is", law professor Jenny M. Roberts told the New York Times.


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  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by frojack on Monday October 05 2015, @01:40AM

    by frojack (1554) on Monday October 05 2015, @01:40AM (#245434) Journal

    There are still plenty of police against legal pot use in Washington, Colorado, Oregon, and Alaska.
    I've heard them insist it is still a gateway drug. Some are seriously still butt-hurt that the
    voter initiatives passed and they can't seem to let it go.

    Some work places still insist on a no pot use policy, even off the job, mostly because they have
    no valid tests to determine if your use was an hour ago or 20 hours ago.

    This is still likely to be in the courts for a long time.

    --
    No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
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  • (Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Monday October 05 2015, @02:10AM

    by PartTimeZombie (4827) on Monday October 05 2015, @02:10AM (#245446)

    I have no doubt that cops everywhere will be against the use of pot.

    I've heard a retired policeman state that pot should be kept illegal because it encourages people to break the law.

    Like the circular reasoning?

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 05 2015, @02:18AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 05 2015, @02:18AM (#245449)

      I've heard a retired policeman state that pot should be kept illegal because it encourages people to break the law.

      Sounds like he has a portfolio full of private prison stocks.

      • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 05 2015, @05:44AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 05 2015, @05:44AM (#245494)

        I've heard a retired policeman state that pot should be kept illegal because it encourages people to break the law.

        Sounds like he has a portfolio full of private prison stocks.

        We can let the pigweed go now, for we have copyright law. If anything encourages people to break the law, it is copyright law. That, and overbearing cops who think they know the law, when they actually flunked out of high-school, but no one told them because they were not going to college and they would never find out. No, we have more than enough reasons to break the law, and more than enough surveillence to know that everyone has in fact broken the law--- the more laws there are, the more criminals there are.