Los Angeles Set to Reduce or Expunge 50,000 Marijuana Convictions

Nearly 50,000 people who have been convicted of marijuana-related offenses will have their convictions erased or reduced, according to a statement on Monday from the district attorney of Los Angeles County.

In partnership with Code for America, a nonprofit tech organization, Los Angeles County will identify decades-old court cases that it would otherwise have been unable to find. Using this technology, it will remove marijuana convictions altogether or reduce felony sentences to misdemeanors.

“This collaboration will improve people’s lives by erasing the mistakes of their past and hopefully lead them on a path to a better future. Helping to clear that path by reducing or dismissing cannabis convictions can result in someone securing a job or benefitting from other programs that may have been unavailable to them in the past,” L.A. County District Attorney Jackie Lacey said in a statement. The district attorney for San Joaquin County, Tori Verber Salazar, also announced that her county would work with Code for America to erase nearly 4,000 marijuana-related offenses from the public record. [Read more at Rolling Stone]