The marijuana pardon project was announced by Gov. Tom Wolf as a program that could help thousands of Pennsylvanians with minor cannabis convictions clear their records. But only a small number of people will actually get this benefit.
From September 1 to September 30, when people could apply, more than 2,600 people sent in 3,539 applications. Of the people who applied, 231 will get a final public hearing later this month, when the Board of Pardons will vote on which applications to send to the governor for final approval. The applications of 434 more people were held for review.
(There Are More Applications than People Who Want to Apply Because Some People Sent in More than One, One for Each Charge or County.)
Emily Demsey, who is Wolf’s deputy press secretary, said that most applications were turned down at a board meeting last week because they did not meet the program’s requirements. People could only use the program if they had been convicted of having small amounts of marijuana. If they had been convicted of any other crimes, they couldn’t use the program.
Demsey said, “The Pennsylvania Marijuana Pardon Project was the first of its kind. Its goal was to pardon a large number of people convicted of certain minor, non-violent marijuana crimes since the governor can’t pardon people on his own and the General Assembly hasn’t done anything to legalize marijuana for adults.”
“Governor Wolf hopes that the next administration will keep working to improve this process and give people with these offenses the clean slates they deserve until marijuana is legalized in Pennsylvania.”
14 of the 231 people who will be heard came from Philadelphia. During the time when the city could send in applications, 197 were sent in. From the first 175 applications, 13 were accepted in Montgomery County, 10 were accepted in Delaware County, and 2 were accepted in Bucks County. Data from the governor’s office show that none of the 61 applicants from Chester County were given a hearing.
At least one person will have a hearing in 46 out of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties. Except for Cameron, which has the fewest people in the state, every county had at least one application.
Chris Goldstein, a regional organizer for the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, said that the program’s limited time for accepting applications and its limited list of pardonable convictions were to blame for the low number of hearings given.
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He said that most of the time, people who are arrested for having marijuana are also charged with having paraphernalia like pipes or rolling papers. If they had had to pay that extra fee, they wouldn’t have been able to work on the project.
“You could only have one charge, so it’s very limited. Goldstein said, “That one moment when the person gets that charge creates a number of charges.” “Because the rules are so strict, it doesn’t matter what else is on the record; it just has to be something else. It’s hard.”
But, Goldstein said, this is just how executive pardons work, whether they come from the governor or the president. For example, President Joe Biden’s marijuana pardon from October only applies to people who have been convicted of simple possession of marijuana under federal law between 1992 and 2021. About 6,500 people were affected by that move.
Goldstein was one of them because he was convicted of federal marijuana charges in 2014 because he protested against marijuana laws at Independence National Historic Park.
But even though these kinds of programs only help a small number of people, they are still helpful to the people who use them. Pardons can be a big help to people who have been in trouble with the law.
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A marijuana conviction can make it harder to get a job, find a place to live, or go to college. Even though a pardon doesn’t hide a criminal record like expunging it, it does give back rights that a conviction can take away.
“For those 231 people who got a federal pardon as I did, it will change their lives in a big way,” he said. “A pardon is something when nothing else is being done.”
