Nevada is funding an investigation into implementing automatic record sealing for cannabis convictions

Earlier this month, three nonprofits (the Legal Aid Center of Southern Nevada, Nevada Legal Services, and Code for America) received a total of $1.2 million in cannabis tax revenue from the Clark County Commission. Code for America, which received $200,000 of that amount, was commissioned to study how to implement automatic sealing of records in the state of Nevada.

According to The Nevada Independent, assembly member Venicia Considine, who is also development director at Legal Aid of Southern Nevada, explained how these beliefs affect people later in life. “There was a woman who couldn’t see her son graduate from an air force base because she had a criminal record [for cannabis]’ said Considine. “There’s a lot of people living here in Las Vegas who couldn’t get jobs just because they had something on their record from ten, two decades ago that was eligible for plate sealing, but there was no real way to get it done.”

Sealing of records is often a lengthy process involving a number of steps and funds to be successful. The Nevada Independent claims that fewer than 10% of eligible individuals who use this process actually have their records wiped.

The Bay Area-based Code for America has nine months to outline what it would take to expedite this process. Many hope it could bring positive attention back to Assembly Bill 192, also known as the Nevada Second Chance Act, which was passed in 2019.

AB-192’s sponsor, former Member of Parliament William McCurdy II (now Clark County Commissioner), explains one of the catches with the bill. “I wanted [AB-192] to be an automatic seal, but that was impossible because we currently have records that are not digitized,” McCurdy said.

AB-192 has led to many useful workshops that have helped Nevada residents clear up their past cannabis convictions, but there are many more people who need help. “If you have a criminal record, especially under the previous laws, you could have committed a felony … and you never would have engaged in human trafficking or anything,” McCurdy said.

Prior to 2016, when voters legalized medicinal cannabis, violators received a felony charge after three charges of possession of less than an ounce of cannabis (or if they possessed more than an ounce on the first offense). After 2016, possession of more than an ounce is a misdemeanor and criminal offenses arise for the illegal sale of cannabis products.

McCurdy mentioned that tough cannabis laws have resulted in black offenders getting tougher sentences. This is supported by data collected by the American Civil Liberties Union, which reports that between 2001 and 2018, cannabis offenses reported blacks were arrested three times as often as whites and up to eight times as often in some states.

“If you were someone [of color], back then, who was a drug addict, and you were in possession of that drug, most of the time you were convicted of a felony,” McCurdy said. “That was the war on drugs.”

Considine adds that the process of sealing records is difficult for people trying to do it for themselves, and challenging even for legal professionals. “When you’ve done your time and you are [eligible for record sealing]why are you still paying a fine for it, especially when people can [use cannabis] now and no one gets in trouble for it?” said Considine.

Code for America was instrumental in helping the State of Utah delete more than 500,000 records in February 2022. It has also helped other states like California and Oklahoma. Though the organization has had success in the past, Code for America associate program director Alia Toran-Burrell says every state is different and may require a different approach. Ultimately, an updated law can only do so much. “Legislation is needed because there’s no other real mechanism to force a state to do this at the state level,” Burrell said.

The process of figuring out how best to deal with record sealing requires a lot of thought to navigate a state’s current policies. “I think we’re going to focus on the current landscape?” Burell said. “What exists in systems? What does the policy say? And then we’ll work with the state to see if it’s even something they want to move forward with.”

Though Nevada doesn’t allow erasure, a new process aimed at sealing records could still help many people with cannabis convictions on their records get the freedom they deserve.

“These are people who have served their time, they have completed their probationary period, they have been a model citizen no matter how long it has been since their probationary period ended,” Considine said. “And that’s just a way for her to get a better job, move up, become a nurse, visit her kids on one [military] Base, go to Canada or… visit other countries or whatever is stopping them.”