Over 55,000 marijuana convictions have been automatically sealed (hidden) from people’s criminal history in Minnesota.
“Criminal history records that qualify for automatic expungement under the Adult-Use Cannabis Act [approved by voters in 2023] are no longer visible to the public in the Minnesota Criminal History System (CHS)”, according to a press release from the Department of Public Safety’s Office of Communications. “The Minnesota Department of Public Safety Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) has expunged (also referred to as sealing) 57,780 records in CHS almost three months ahead of schedule.”
The Minnesota Judicial Branch determined that just 213 records should not be expunged.
Since the Adult-Use Cannabis Act became law on Aug. 1, 2023, the BCA has worked to identify all records in the state’s CHS that qualify for automatic expungement. While that work was taking place, the BCA completed extensive coding changes to the system so that qualifying records could be sealed from public view.
“We are pleased to be able to deliver on this legislative priority,” BCA Superintendent Drew Evans said. “Minnesotans will see changes to their records immediately and as additional expungements are made in the months and years ahead.”
Next steps in the process
The BCA has notified the Minnesota Judicial Branch that this step is complete. The BCA will soon provide a by-agency list of records expunged in the CHS to local criminal justice agencies, so that they can expunge related records in their own systems.
Additional, “mostly felony level Adult-Use Cannabis Act-related records qualify for review by the independent Cannabis Expungement Board, which will consider whether resentencing or expungement are appropriate under the law. Because each record must be considered individually, this process could take several years to complete.”
“The Cannabis Expungement Board is tasked with the thoughtful and careful review of cannabis-related felonies and we are quickly moving forward to build a team to accomplish the work,” Cannabis Expungements Board Executive Director James Rowader said. “It is very encouraging to see that misdemeanor cannabis criminal records are moving toward expungement now. These actions together will have a lasting and significant equity impact on communities throughout the state of Minnesota.”
A notice is posted on all records in the CHS notifying those who view the records about the possibility of future changes under the Adult-Use Cannabis Act.
The BCA will review records in the CHS again in 2025 to identify and expunge any additional records that were still in the court process when the 2024 expungements occurred.
