Illinois Cannabis Expungement

Illinois Cannabis Expungement is coming for those people arrested for, or convicted of, an offense eligible for expungement under the new Cannabis Regulation and Tax Act that becomes effective in Illinois on January 1, 2020. Basically low level cannabis offenses (possession up to 500 grams, or intent to distribute up to 30 grams) will be expunged once cannabis is legal in Illinois. We cover the law in this article and give you the details.

Up to 800,000 people in Illinois will be eligible for expungement of their past “minor cannabis offenses’ and a few other crimes under Section 4 and 5 of the Illinois Cannabis Control Act.

In this page, we provide a great amount of detail as to what cannabis offenses can be expunged and how that impacts your status as a social equity applicant in the new Illinois cannabis industry.

How to expunge cannabis convictions in Illinois

Get your arrest records, sometimes called “rap sheet”, for your cannabis arrests or convictions & check if they are eligible.
Possession up to 500 grams, or intent to distribute up to 30 grams are eligible for expungement under new expungement cannabis law Illinois cannabis.
Call your local legal aid clinic and get an opinion on your record to start the procedure for an expungement that requires additional work.
“Minor Cannabis Crimes” will be automatically expunged, but that is only possession of cannabis of up to one ounce (30 grams).
Submit a petition for expungement with the circuit clerk’s office.
Attend a court hearing if any objection to your Illinois Cannabis Expungement petition is filed by the State
Have the court grant your petition to expunge your cannabis conviction or arrest.
The local police and state police have to expunge your record, which can take approximately 60 days after the order.

Here’s the link to the report from Colorado showing the reduction of arrests & DUIs after cannabis legalization.

Illinois Cannabis Automatic Expungement for Minor Cannabis Offenses

(G-5) “Minor Cannabis Offense” means a violation of Section 4 or 5 of the Cannabis Control Act concerning not more than 30 grams of any substance containing cannabis, provided the violation did not include a penalty enhancement under Section 7 of the Cannabis Control Act and is not associated with an arrest, conviction or other disposition for a violent crime as defined in subsection (c) of Section 3 of the Rights of Crime Victims and Witnesses Act.

Brief Outline of Expungement for Cannabis in Illinois

Social Equity Applicant
- 20% of your application’s score
- Three elements to Social Equity Applicants
  - Reside in a “Disproportionately Impacted Area”
  - Arrested for an “offense eligible for expungement”
  - 10 full time employees with 51% from number 1 or 2
Offenses Eligible for Expungement Under the Cannabis Law
- Minor cannabis offenses
  - Automatic expungement
  - Minor cannabis offenses
    - Not more than 30 grams
    - No penalty enhancement
    - Violation of section 4 or 5 of Cannabis Control Act
      - Misdemeanor or Class 4 Felonies
- Cannabis Control Act – Class 4 Felony
  - Section 4 – Possession
    - Subsection C – up to 100 grams
      - Subsequent offense – Class 4 Felony
    - Subsection D – 101 to 500 grams
      - First offense only – Class 4 Felony
      - Subsequent offense – Class 3 Felony
  - Section 5 – manufacture & intent to deliver
    - Subsection C – 10 to 30 grams
      - Class 4 felony
- Intentional Arrests
  - Morality clause of Section 135 then applies
  - If you have a criminal record, then you have to play under different rules to show that you have been rehabilitated
  - So if you qualify for being a social equity applicant because you intentionally did it, probably won’t work out well.

Images from the law for your review on the social equity aspects of the expugmentment for cannabis offenses.

Expungement for Arrests for “Minor Cannabis Offenses” in Illinois

Also expunge misdemeanors or felonies under Illinois Cannabis Control Act’s Section 4 and 5

Here’s more from the law regarding other cannabis offenses that are eligible for expungement in Illinois.

Hi, I’m Thomas Howard a cannabis lawyer you can find at cannabis Industry Lawyer.com an online resource for your questions about getting into and operating in the legal cannabis industry. Today, we have a hot topic in cannabis – social equity. Illinois expressly adopted social equity into their law and created offenses eligible for expungement that qualify people as social equity applicants.

The social equity portion of your cannabis license application constitutes 20% of the points for your application and there are 3 primary ways to get them. 1) live in a Disproportionately Impacted Area, 2) get arrested or convicted for an offense eligible for expungement under the new cannabis law, or 3) work for a cannabis company with at least 10 full time employees from number 1 or 2. That was social equity points, and not applicants – because then you would have needed a majority of ownership and control for points one and two.

We are just going to focus right now on the offenses eligible for expungement. What are those? The Cannabis Regulation and Tax Act (the “CRTA”) creates them by defining a new legal term of art, the “minor cannabis offense,” and amending the cannabis control act to include both possession and intent to distribute so long as it was a misdemeanor or class 4 felony.

What’s a minor cannabis offense? The CRTA defines it as a violation of Section 4 or 5 of the Cannabis Control Act of not more than 30 grams of cannabis, so long as it does not include a penalty enhancement under Section 7 of the cannabis control act – basically violence in addition to trafficking or having cannabis.

The new law automatically expunges all minor cannabis offenses, which may draw a separation of powers challenge because only the governor has the ability to pardon offenders – which presumably JB Pritzker would do as this is a Bill that he supported and signed. – Perhaps signing the bill was his pardon – legally speaking.
Confusion arises with the other expungeable offenses that require more paperwork, and expungement seminars in 2020, to get off your record. The CRTA provided that not only minor cannabis offenses can be expunged, but also misdemeanors and class 4 felonies under Sections 4 and 5 of the Cannabis Control Act.
Section 4 of the Cannabis Control Act deals with possession, and you can be caught with possession of up to 500 grams (that’s a little over one pound) of unlicensed cannabis once – but getting caught again with it is a bigger crime, a class 3 felony for the subsequent offense. You can get caught with 30 to 100 grams a subsequent time and have it be a Class 4 felony. So if you get caught with a pound of cannabis once, you can get it expunged – however if that happened…

You probably were also charged under Section 5 of the Cannabis Control Act for intent to distribute, basically to intend to sell the cannabis. If you are charged with that, the amounts of cannabis is much less. Being charged with intent to distribute more than 10 but less than 30 grams of cannabis is a class 4 felony, and less than 10 grams is a misdemeanor. 30 grams is only about an ounce, which is probably less than $500 at your local dispensary, and also the legal possession limit under the CRTA. Probably not a coincidence that the amount legal to possess is the same amount you can be expunged for attempting to deliver.

These amendments really raise 2 things in my mind. First, there will be a lot of arrests for cannabis in the future because the lawful possession level of one ounce can easily be exceeded, or people start paying their bar bets with cannabis and get caught weighing out a gram and bagging it up – but these minor infractions are all eligible for expungement, and second, the result of the continued arrests will be that the wave of social equity applicants will grow – especially if people organize cannabis rights events in the various communities that have begun passing ordinances banning cannabis businesses in their communities – It’s not very family friendly to arrest people for doing something safer and healthier than alcohol or cigarettes – or even fast food. But these arrests will quickly fall as they did in Colorado after legalization.

They dropped sharply as well, check out not only the marijuana arrests in Colorado, but also what happend to DUI arrests – they also fell by double digits. For more, I’ve left the official report from Colorado in the description section and also linked on this webpage.

If you are are victim of one of these expungeable offenses and want to get into the cannabis industry – feel free to browse my website or give me a call.

Thomas Howard has been in business for years and can help yours navigate towards more profitable waters.

Our cannabis business attorneys are also business owners. We can help you structure your business or help protect it from overly burdensome regulations.

Illinois Cannabis Expungement