Recreational marijuana was officially legalized Thursday, Dec. 8, in Missouri, exactly a month after voters in the Show Me state approved a constitutional amendment.
While Amendment 3 contains 39 pages of legal text on the sale and distribution of cannabis in the 21st state to legalize, there will be little change to law enforcement operations in Cape Girardeau.
A significant amount of the "Yes on Amendment 3" campaign material was focused on law enforcement. Those lobbying in favor of passage argued that legalization would allow police officers room to focus on more serious crime.
A spokesman for Cape Girardeau Police Department said local police already do.
"Our primary focus has always been on serious crimes. The casual marijuana user has never taken precedent over that," Cpl. Ryan Droege, Cape Girardeau Police Department public information officer, said in an email. "There will be no impact to our policing strategy/philosophy with passage of legalization."
Droege estimated around 3% of the department's arrests in the last year were marijuana-related incidents. Under the new law, distribution without a license and consumption by those younger than 21 is still illegal.
All officers have been briefed on new regulations, Droege said, including the new legal limit of 3 oz. — an amount that would fill a sandwich-sized plastic bag.
Among the most significant pathways opened up by the new amendment is the opportunity for the expungement of records for marijuana-related offenses. However, the process will likely be more difficult than the amendment text makes it seem.
The new law allows for those convicted of a misdemeanor or felony marijuana-related offense involving possession of less than 3 pounds to petition to vacate their sentence, and order immediate release if they're currently in prison, and have their records expunged.
All marijuana-related misdemeanors must be expunged by six months after legalization takes effect, felonies a year after by the sentencing court, according to the text of the amendment.
However, the expungement rules are not written in the same way as convictions are processed. Misdemeanor possession is for less than 35 grams, meaning those can be expunged with less effort. Felony possession is filed differently, with marijuana possessions lumped in with other felony drug possessions, meaning clerks will have to manually go through and check records in order to pull out possession charges of less than 3 pounds of weed for expungement.
The courts have already lobbied for additional funds to pay for overtime for clerks completing the work. The money, if appropriated, likely won't be added to the Missouri Courts budget for several months.
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