Colorado lawmakers let governor pardon pot possession convictions

The governor would be able to mass-pardon marijuana convictions for possession of 2 ounces or less if he signs a bill that gives him that authority.

It was the last amendment to the last bill considered Monday before Colorado’s General Assembly ended its work for the year. Lawmakers added the mass expungement option to House Bill 1424, which aims to open the marijuana industry to people of color and those who were previously convicted on drug charges that wouldn’t be crimes now.

A spokesperson for Gov. Jared Polis didn’t directly answer whether he would sign it but sounded supportive Tuesday afternoon.

“The governor is happy that a meaningful, bipartisan bill addressing marijuana equity passed the legislature and thanks lawmakers for their efforts to get this bill to his desk,” Conor Cahill said.

Longmont Democrat Rep. Jonathan Singer had been working on a bill earlier this year to automatically clear past marijuana convictions, but a shortage of time and money in the Capitol forced him to drop it after the pandemic struck. In a last-minute move in his final days as a lawmaker, Singer decided to try to get an amendment on another bill that would at least pave the way to get convictions cleared.

“When we talk about a business licensing and equity model, we need to be thinking about people left behind in the War on Drugs,” Singer said. “There are people who are still paying for their crimes that are now legal and constitutional.”

Those impacts, he said, disproportionately affect communities of color.

“As someone that ended up making a lot of their career in the legislature on everything from helping people struggling with substance abuse to creating the legal marijuana industry as we know it now, this is the biggest blind spot,” Singer said.

A conference committee considering the amendment ultimately approved it with one caveat — allowing the governor to consult with others about pardons if he wishes.

Not everyone agreed with adding the expungement amendment. Rep. Matt Soper, a Delta Republican, decided to withdraw as a bill sponsor. Soper said he doesn’t disagree with clearing people’s past marijuana convictions, but he denounced the way it happened.

He called the late addition an analogy for how the entire session was led by the Democratic majority.

“It shifted from a marijuana business licensing bill to becoming a criminal justice bill concerning mass expungement and record sealing for an entire class of offenders,” he said.

The change would not only apply to people who qualified for the social equity program but everyone who had previous convictions, making them two separate issues, Soper said. The main bill expands who’s allowed to get marijuana business licenses to Colorado residents who have been arrested or convicted on a marijuana offense, subject to civil asset forfeiture from a marijuana offense, or lived in an area designated as high crime or economically disadvantaged.

The District Attorneys Council declined to comment on the bill Tuesday.

Rep. Terri Carver, a Republican in Colorado Springs, challenged the amendment on the House floor, saying it violated the state’s single-subject rule and went beyond the scope of the conference committee’s charge. She also pointed out that the state’s 2012 legalization of possession was for 1 ounce for recreational marijuana, not 2 ounces, as it is for medical marijuana.

Ultimately, House Democratic leaders ruled that the bill and amendment could move forward, despite an appeal from Soper.