Moves across the US to legalise marijuana have been greeted by reformers as heralding the end of the “war on drugs”. But what happens to people convicted of offences that no longer exist? And will the records of those arrested now be wiped clean?
This is a big year for American pot smokers. Business has been brisk at shops in Colorado where, for the first time, people can buy marijuana to smoke purely for pleasure. Stores in Washington state are set to open in a few months and others may follow, as authorities eye a new source of tax dollars from a policy that now has broad popular support.
Yet as the momentum for reform has gathered pace, one issue has largely been brushed aside – the fate of those arrested in the past.
If I recall correctly, when the Supreme Court struck down the sodomy laws in Lawrence v. Texas, there was no retroactive element to it. Anyone who was currently awaiting trial would have been released, but those who had pled/been found guilty cannot change that status.
If a change in laws were retroactive, utter chaos would ensue. In order to ensure fairness, it would have to be a bilateral situation, where if a law removes a past rule, existing convictions for that crime must be pardoned, and if something which had previously been legal is outlawed, past activities that were *not* a crime at the time must be prosecuted.
#1–Except the Constitution prohibits ex post facto laws, which means among other things you cannot prosecute someone for something that was not a crime at the time it was committed but later became a crime.
Isn’t the problem self-solving? If they consume enough marijuana, they won’t remember that they have a criminal record.
It’s like Soma in Brave New World.