Illinois Prosecutor’s Office Reaches Over 15,000 Cannabis Deletes |

It has been over two years since the state of Illinois legalized recreational cannabis, and over 15,000 cannabis-related deletions have now been completed.

The Cook County Attorney’s Office (CCSAO) announced on April 20 that it had achieved its goal of completing the Cannabis Expungement Project, an effort aimed at cleaning the records of Illinois residents of all cannabis-related crimes. Leading that effort, Attorney Kim Foxx, said on Twitter that on April 22, the bureau would submit another 214 cases for automatic deletion, for a total of 15,191, completing the project.

Foxx also released a statement addressing the importance of working on erasing programs. “Crime allegations can affect every aspect of a person’s life, from work to home, long after debts to society have been paid off,” Foxx said. “I am proud that by working with attorneys, Code for America, the Chief Judge’s Office, the Cook County Clerk of the Circuit Court and the Illinois State Police, we have been able to bring relief to so many people that they, their families, and their… communities can thrive.”

There are still the last 588 cannabis-related cases, some dating back to 1965, with insufficient data for immediate deletion. In a press release, the CCSAO noted that it is working with the state to investigate these cases more closely.

Overall, Foxx added: “[T]This is so much more than liberation from condemnation for thousands of people. This is about restoring confidence in the criminal justice system.”

Foxx began investigating what it would take to achieve deletion as early as April 2019. In June 2019, Gov. JB Pritzker signed the state’s recreational cannabis law into law, which also immediately wiped out 800,000 residents whose records were marked with low-level cannabis possession.

In August 2019, Foxx and the CCSAO announced their collaboration with Code for America to begin eliminating charges for possession of up to 30 grams in any case. “It’s prosecutors who were part of the war on drugs, we were part of a larger ecosystem that believed it was necessary in the interest of public safety to get those convictions,” Foxx said. “In hindsight, and looking at the fallout from the War on Drugs, it’s also prosecutors who need to be at the table to ensure we right the wrongs of the past.”

Foxx filed the first deletion requests in December 2019 to proactively initiate the process through the Cannabis Regulation and Tax Act, which went into effect on January 1, 2020. Shortly thereafter, the pandemic led to court closures that only resumed later in 2020.

At the time, some local police officers did not support the deletion of cannabis convictions from individuals’ files. Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 7 President Kevin Graham (then managing over 10,000 officers in Chicago) expressed his reluctance to free people from their prior beliefs. “Even if the law changes, it doesn’t change the fact that these people knew they were breaking the law, were arrested and retried without considering the hard work that police officers put into apprehending these offenders may result in injury.” were,” he said in 2019.

Graham is no longer in that position as of 2020, when he lost the bid for re-election and was replaced in 2020 by former President John Catanzara (who later resigned in November 2021). Graham was suspended for three years in 2020 after a hidden camera was left in Catanzara’s office.

The Illinois cannabis industry has come a long way, and its success is evident in sales data that has consistently increased over time. In 2021, Illinois cannabis sales doubled compared to 2020 revenue. A report by the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation said recreational sales were $669 million in 2020 and $1,379,088,278 in 2021 -dollars reached.