"You know, people get scared because they think they're going to have to hire a lawyer, for instance, or don't understand that's why there's expungement clinics to help people, and to get the paperwork sorted out and to go through the process," he adds.
MICHIGAN CLEAN SLATE LAW HOW TO
"It's absolutely a barrier - just understanding that they have to know how to do it, and that they have to appreciate and recognize that it doesn't have to take a lot of money," he says. "We are putting as much pressure as we can on her to do that."Įven the pathway for expungement that the clean slate law puts forth doesn't go far enough, Morris says, because it requires people to apply – creating a barrier for entry for many people. "(Whitmer) has responded to our inquiries and says that she's going to set up a meeting, but it hasn't happened yet," he says. Morris works with an organization called the Michigan Cannabis Freedom Coalition that is petitioning the Whitmer administration to get more prisoners pardoned, but progress remains slow on that front, he says. We're not waiting 30 years to get out, or three more years. I have a guy who's in for two years on a five-year sentence for running a dispensary. "That guy was in prison for 30 years of a 50-year sentence. "Michael Thompson is an extreme case," Morris says. Morris believes there are more than 1,000 Michigan residents behind bars for cannabis-related activity now considered legal.
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In December, Whitmer commuted the sentence of Michael Thompson, a Black man who was sentenced in 1996 for up to 60 years in prison after selling marijuana to an undercover cop, along the sentences of three others. "Well, if you were doing that before 2018, you could be convicted of a felony. "Growing marijuana is now completely legal - you can grow 12 plants in your basement," he tells Metro Times. While misdemeanors like possession and use are automatically expunged under the law beginning in 2023, now-legal activities that were previously considered felonies, like growing marijuana, isn't.
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However, cannabis advocates like Barton Morris, an attorney at the Cannabis Legal Group, says the law doesn't go far enough. And earlier this month, the Michigan Attorney General created a website to help people apply to get the convictions expunged. In 2020, Governor Gretchen Whitmer signed "clean slate" legislation that created a path for residents to clear many pot-related offenses from their criminal records. But what about all the people with previous criminal records for the very same activity now deemed legal? In 2018, Michigan voters approved legalizing cannabis for adults age 21 and older, including possession, use, and cultivation.