AZ dispensaries partner with Reclaim Your Future to uplift free expungement
With more than $1.6 billion in revenue since the 2020 passage of Proposition 207 (also known as the Smart & Safe Act or, simply, Prop 207), Arizona’s marijuana dispensary industry has become one of the wealthiest and most influential in the state.
Of course, with great power comes great responsibility—corporate social responsibility, that is.
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is a concept in which companies choose to integrate social and environmental concerns into their business operations. It’s a way for businesses to be socially accountable to themselves, their stakeholders, and the public. For the cannabis industry, expungement is an obvious endeavor for companies to implement CSR.
“A criminal record is an ever-lasting scarlet letter for people, and its impact on lives are often detrimental. Now that marijuana is legal, people should no longer bear the burdens caused by old marijuana offenses, especially because companies are making millions of dollars off marijuana,” says Martin Hutchins, an attorney and program manager for the Reclaim Your Future campaign. “Tackling the criminal legal problems that still exist for people from marijuana offenses requires an ‘all hands on deck’ approach, including those from the government, non-profit and corporate sectors.”
‘Meeting people where they are’
Expungement is one way to mitigate the harms caused by over-policing of marijuana. When voters passed Prop 207, Arizona officials estimated that more than 192,000 marijuana-related charges were on the record, meaning that there were at least 192,000 records that should be evaluated for expungement eligibility. Further, there are still people serving time in prison or on parole and paying fines to the court because of marijuana offenses.
“We understand where the cannabis industry started,” says John Calloway, executive director for Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) at Trulieve, an operator of marijuana dispensaries across Arizona and 10 other states. “We understand the War on Drugs, and we want to always make sure that everything we do as an organization is focused on the community, especially the communities we operate in and the communities we serve.”
To that end, Trulieve, its Harvest dispensaries in Arizona, and other dispensaries across the state, including Glendale’s Arizona Organix, Tucson’s Downtown Dispensary, and more have partnered with the Reclaim Your Future campaign for the past several months, hosting our expungement clinics, educating their customers and patients on the benefits of marijuana expungement, and directing people with a marijuana record to the Reclaim Your Future website for free expungement assistance.
It’s an intentional partnership Hutchins envisioned from the moment he took on the role of leading the Reclaim Your Future campaign.
“Partnering with dispensaries is important because we are trying to tap into their regular involvement with patients and customers–people that we know expungement is likely to help. It’s all about going where the people are,” Hutchins says. “We do a lot of expungement events in libraries and courthouses. And it’s great to have access to those spaces, but they aren’t always the most warm and welcoming places. They can be intimidating to folks.
“But when the people we need to reach go to a dispensary, they are far more comfortable there and, obviously, they are far more likely to go there than court,” he adds. “Meeting people where they are is always a great way to help people learn about information and resources that they are not yet aware of.”
Expungement education & outreach are key
Prop 207, which legalized adult recreational use of marijuana in Arizona, also created a pathway to expungement for the hundreds of thousands of people who may have a marijuana conviction or arrest from this state. And that means no longer having to fear the results of a background check when applying for a good job or searching for a safe place to live, or any number of collateral consequences that come from a conviction history.
You might think that, because recreational use of marijuana is now legal in Arizona, expungement is automatic for those with an arrest or conviction history. Sadly, that’s not the case. Those with an eligible marijuana record from Arizona–or legal representatives who can do so on their behalf–are required to petition the court for expungement, which effectively seals the conviction or arrest from public records. Prop 207 included funding for outreach and education and, most importantly, legal aid so people with a marijuana record wouldn’t be forced to pay for expungement.
“Expungement is a social justice component [of marijuana legalization] that is needed,” says Calloway, whose Harvest dispensaries in Arizona recently hosted a series of Reclaim Your Future events in Chandler, Scottsdale and Tucson. “Just because a state goes recreational does not mean that everyone is educated on the processes to actually go through expungement. And oftentimes I’ve found, as I’ve gone out to expungement clinics, that people believe that it’s just automatic and they believe that [expungement] is just gonna happen. And sometimes they don’t know that they have to take additional steps to make it official with the justice system.
“So, we want to do our part to make sure that we are educating the community and giving back to the community.”
‘The difference between an hourly job and a real career’
Stephanie Boyden, founding partner of Tucson’s Downtown Dispensary and D2 Dispensary, has seen the “value and importance of expungement to our community” firsthand, thanks to her dispensaries hosting recent events with the University of Arizona’s Civil Rights Restoration Clinic, a Reclaim Your Future campaign partner.
In February, she met a woman who drove to Tucson from Phoenix for a Reclaim Your Future clinic at Downtown Dispensary after learning about it on social media. The woman, Boyden recalls, was working to become a dental hygienist assistant, but couldn’t get her certification because of a previous marijuana conviction.
“But in two hours, in the space that we provided and with the help of the Reclaim Your Future attorneys, the process to expunge her conviction began,” Boyden says. “That could be the difference between an hourly job and a real career–a real change. Just absolutely transformative for her life!”
While hosting expungement events and educating their clientele are important parts of the corporate social responsibility that marijuana dispensaries owe to the public, Hutchins says, employing people of color and people with a marijuana conviction history that’s been expunged is just as vital.
Although expungement is not the ultimate solution for all the problems caused by past enforcement of marijuana laws, it’s an actionable start,” Hutchins adds.
The Reclaim Your Future campaign is available to provide assistance to dispensaries who want to ensure their involvement in expungement efforts.
To partner with Reclaim Your Future, email info@azexpunge.org.
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