With a strong majority of Americans supporting cannabis legalization, more states continue to join efforts to legalize every year. In 2023, there are at least 15 states working to legalize recreational cannabis: Delaware, Hawaii, Iowa, Indiana, Kentucky, Minnesota, Mississippi, Nebraska, New Hampshire, Oklahoma (through a ballot initiative), South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and West Virginia. Together, they represent more than half of the 29 states that have yet to legalize.

In many of these states, legalization efforts face opposition. In fact, in eight of the states, proposals for adult-use cannabis legalization are coming before the state establishes marijuana decriminalization or legalizes medical use. In Iowa, Indiana, Kentucky, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas, neither marijuana decriminalization nor medical-use legalization has yet been successful. In Nebraska, recreational legalization efforts were introduced before medical use was legalized. Lastly, in West Virginia, proposals to legalize adult use marijuana use precede decriminalization. These expeditious legalization efforts speak for themselves. The country is eager to allow marijuana use despite geographic and political differences. 

While all of these states are ultimately working towards the same goals of marijuana legalization, the provisions set forth in the policies vary greatly. At Last Prisoner Project (LPP), we believe that justice is not achieved through simple legalization, but through undoing the harms caused by prohibitionist policies. Legalization efforts must include retroactive relief through state-initiated resentencing and record clearance. 

Resentencing, which involves individuals still serving their sentence, can result in the reduction of a criminal sentence. Record clearance, which involves people who have finished their sentence, removes a specific event from an individual's criminal record. It is essential that both of these processes are state-initiated, requiring no action from the impacted individuals and instead putting the burden on the state.

We were thrilled to see that both of our policy priorities were contemplated to some extent in many of the state legalization proposals. We are particularly interested in the policies proposed in Hawaii, Minnesota, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and the District of Columbia. 

In Hawaii, HB 237 is a cannabis legalization bill that provides for both record clearance as well as resentencing. Importantly, the record clearance mechanism is state-initiated, requiring no action from the impacted individuals. While the resentencing process does require impacted individuals to file a petition to the court, LPP was nonetheless excited to see its inclusion as a laudable effort to provide pathways to release for individuals behind bars for cannabis.

In Minnesota, the marijuana legalization bills, HF 100 and SF 73, include provisions for both state-initiated record clearance and petition-based resentencing. For resentencing, the bill proposes the creation of a Cannabis Expungement Board to review cannabis-related felony convictions for sentence modification. For record clearance, LPP was thrilled to see that the bill includes a state-initiated process.

In Oklahoma, SQ 820 is a ballot initiative that will leave the question of legalization up to voters on March 7th. Polls suggest a majority of voters support legalization, and the measure is likely to pass. While the bill includes mechanisms for both record clearance and resentencing, both provisions are unfortunately narrow in scope and petition-initiated. However, LPP was thrilled to see the inclusion of criminal justice in the first place.

In Tennessee, HB 85 proposes a surprising legalization bill that comes before the state decriminalizes marijuana or allows medical use. Facing a conservative state House, Senate, and Governor, the bill is unlikely to pass. Nonetheless, it’s worth noting that it includes a provision for state-initiated resentencing that is broader than any other state's resentencing proposal. Interestingly, the bill provides no mechanisms for record clearance or sealing. While unlikely to pass, its inclusion of a state-initiated resentencing process speaks to the growing importance of criminal justice reform in marijuana legalization – in blue and red states alike.

Additionally, nine states have proposed policies surrounding marijuana-specific record sealing and resentencing, separate from legalization bills. 

In three of these states – Alaska, Illinois, and Maryland – LPP was thrilled to see that the record clearance bills provide for state-initiated processes, so individuals deserving of relief will receive it without needing to petition the court. 

In Missouri, where adult-use cannabis was legalized this past fall, there was a marijuana-related resentencing bill introduced. HB 504 would allow for early release of individuals who are still serving sentences for marijuana-related offenses. 

In the District of Columbia, LPP was excited to see that Bill 52 contemplates both state-initiated resentencing and automatic record clearance. 

While the viability of these bills – and the processes that they propose – vary greatly, they nonetheless come together to send a clear message: the public is eager to legalize cannabis. This eagerness pervades expected geographical and political bounds, with legalization efforts coming from a variety of states with a variety of champions. Furthermore, it is clear that cannabis justice reform is an important factor in these efforts, being included in a majority of the bills at some level. With this said, the provisions for resentencing and record clearance could be improved upon in nearly every bill, and LPP is committed to supporting states interested in doing so. 

Learn more about our policy work here.