Colorado Governor Jared Polis has granted a number of pardons

Colorado Governor Jared Polis called in 2022 with a pardon party.

Last Thursday, the governor’s office announced that he had “granted three conversions, 15 individual pardons and signed an order pardoning 1,351 pardons for possession of two ounces or less of marijuana.”

The move was made possible by a law signed by Polis in May that “empowered the governor to grant pardons to a group of defendants convicted of possession of up to two ounces of marijuana.”

“Adults can legally own marijuana in Colorado, just like beer or wine. It is unfair that 1,351 additional Coloradans had permanent blemishes that affected employment, credit and gun ownership, but today we fixed that by pardoning them from possession of small amounts of marijuana that occurred during the failed prohibition era, “Polis said in a statement.

Enacted by Polis on May 20 last year, the law increases “the amount of marijuana that adults 21 and older are legally allowed to own in Colorado from one ounce to two ounces,” building on the constitutional amendment passed by voters 2012 to legalize recreational activities on cannabis, which gave the governor such permission.

The governor’s office said in a press release that people who are unsure whether a conviction has been pardoned on their files can fill out a form to request a pardon confirmation from the Colorado Bureau of Investigations website.

Colorado pioneered the legalization movement in the United States and was the first state (along with Washington) to lift the ban on cannabis in 2012. Since then, restorative justice measures have become an integral part of the new cannabis laws, with a former low-level offender receiving pardons.

The governor’s office said the cannabis pardon “applies to federal convictions for possession of two ounces or less of marijuana as determined by the Colorado Bureau of Investigation (CBI)” and that “those who have those convictions do not need “apply for pardons, and the governor’s office has not conducted individual assessments of those pardoned through this process. Individuals convicted of urban marijuana crimes or those arrested or summoned without conviction will not be affected by the pardon. “

However, the New Year will bring some tougher restrictions on medical cannabis laws in Colorado. The Denver Post reported in November that the state Treasury will “limit daily purchases to two ounces of flower and eight grams of concentrates such as wax and splinters for medical marijuana patients,” and that it will reduce it to two grams per day for patients ages 18 and up 20 years.

According to the Denver Post, the Treasury Department unveiled the rules after “months of deliberation on how to implement new state law primarily aimed at restricting young people’s access to and abuse of highly potent THC products.”

The newspaper reported that there are exceptions to the new rules, but “apply to a patient whose doctor has written a written confirmation that the patient has a physical or geographic hardship that should allow him to exceed daily shopping limits and that the patient has named “. a shop as the first point of contact for your medicine. “

The restrictions were made possible after lawmakers passed a bill that created a task force to develop new rules.

The bill was sponsored by US House Democratic MP Yadira Caraveo, a pediatrician, who said she wanted to make sure that young people don’t get “an incredible amount of products and very concentrated products that they get into people’s hands to be able to pass on or sell ”. Age or younger who do not yet have access to the legal market because they are not yet 21 years old. “