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SrATE OF NeW YORK
Orrice OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL
28 LipeRy STREET
New York, NY 10005
Lerma JAMES: (212) 4168050
Arronney Geverat
June 14, 2019
Hon. Andrea Stewart-Cousins, Temporary President and Majority Leader
New York State Senate
Legislative Office Building
Room 907
188 State Street
Albany, NY 12247
Hon, Carl Heastie, Speaker
New York State Assembly
Legislative Office Building
Room 932
188 State Street
Albany, NY 12247
Majority Leader Stewart-Cousins and Speaker Heastie:
Over the past 20 years, New York has become the marijuana arrest capital of the world. With
nearly 800,000 arrests for possession of small amounts of marijuana, we have burdened several
generations of young men and women with a criminal record for activity that is currently legal in
11 states, and decriminalized in 15 others. These records prevent them from accessing higher
education, block them from obtaining public housing and too often prevent them from finding
gainful employment.
Despite the fact that New York is included in the list of states that have decriminalized minor
‘marijuana related offenses, our state still arrests an average of 60 people every day for marijuana
possession. While marijuana consumption and sales occur at nearly identical rates across racial
and ethnic groups, minority communities are arrested at disproportionate rates. In 2016, more
than four out every five marijuana arrests involved either an African American or a Latino,
=1 commend you for your leadership in pushing for marijuana legalization and working to create a
fair and equitable regulatory system. This is a racial and criminal justice imperative and we
simply cannot afford to wait. However, I believe that, as we seek to replace criminalization with
regulation, we must ensure that the individuals who were unjustly harmed by the “war on drugs”
be given the certainty of a truly clean slate. That means going beyond our current sealing statute
to provide full expungement for individuals with convictions for non-violent marijuana offenses.
Expungement must mean the extraction and isolation or destruction of all records on file within
any criminal justice agency concerning a person's detection, apprehension, arrest, detention, trial
or disposition of an offense within the criminal justice system. We must ensure that any nullified
record cannot impair the ability of an individual to participate in a lawful activity or participate
in a legal right. We must guarantee that the door is shut forever and that past policy mistakes do
not further haunt the victims of over-policing.
Before we create a booming business for legal marijuana, we must provide relief to those
individuals that have paid much more to society that what was due. We must stop the cascade of
social and human harms imposed by the Rockefeller drug laws and give individuals who have
been held back a chance to succeed. That means expunging the records of New Yorkers still
burdened with the stigma of non-violent marijuana related convictions.
I therefore strongly urge that any legislation you consider include the complete expungement of
‘marijuana related convictions.
‘Thank you in advance for your consideration.
Sincerely,
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Letitia James