Illinois Governor JB Pritzker (D) said in an announcement hours before the start of the new year that his state has eliminated nearly 500,000 marijuana convictions.
The move follows Pritzker’s signature legislation in 2019, legalizing recreational use of marijuana in the state from 2020. Expansive legislation also paved the way for 770,000 state residents to be eligible to eliminate marijuana-related crimes.
Pritzker initially estimated that it would take four years to start clearing the records, but announced on Thursday that almost 500,000 had already been launched in 2021.
“We have reached that milestone in a year in what will be an ongoing effort to correct historical errors fueled by the war on drugs,” he tweeted.
I am proud to announce that nearly 500,000 low-level cannabis records were eliminated in Illinois, four years ahead of schedule.
We have reached that milestone in a year in what will be an ongoing effort to correct historical errors fueled by the war on drugs.
– Governor JB Pritzker (@GovPritzker) December 31, 2020
We will never be able to fully remedy the depth of damage in the communities of color, which disproportionately borne this burden. But we can govern with the courage to admit the mistakes of our past – and the decency to define a better way.
– Governor JB Pritzker (@GovPritzker) December 31, 2020
“We will never be able to fully remedy the depth of the damage in the communities of color, who have borne this burden disproportionately. But we can govern with the courage to admit the mistakes of our past – and the decency to define a better way.”
Illinois has joined more than a dozen states in recent years that have legally recreational marijuana and sought to resolve drug-related convictions.
California, Colorado, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Nevada, New York, North Dakota, Oregon, Rhode Island and Washington enacted legislation to explicitly eliminate or seal the records of those convicted of low-patent crimes of marijuana.