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U.S. NEWS Tuesday 23 May 2017
California’s legal pot law helps reduce, erase convictions

BRIAN MELLEY while committing an envi-
Associated Press ronmental crime, such as
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Jay stealing or polluting water.
Schlauch’s conviction for Otherwise — in a quirk that
peddling pot haunted him has some in law enforce-
for nearly a quarter cen- ment baffled — someone
tury. caught with two plants or
The felony prevented him 2,000 would both face a
from landing jobs, gave his misdemeanor.
wife doubts about tying the “This is one of those areas
knot and cast a shadow where size doesn’t matter,”
over his typically sunny out- Eyster said.
look on life. When it came time for
So when an opportunity Schlauch’s hearing this win-
arose to reduce his record ter, he showed up an hour
to a misdemeanor un- early at the Van Nuys court-
der California’s voter-ap- house. He was anxious but
proved law that legalized optimistic as he paced the
recreational marijuana last hallway clutching a folder
year, Schlauch wasted little with letters praising him
time getting to court. for doing volunteer work
“Why should I be lumped with veterans, working with
in with, you know, murder- In this Feb. 2, 2017 photo, Jay Schlauch poses for a photo outside Los Angeles Superior Court in children with disabilities at
ers and rapists and people Van Nuys after a judge reduced his felony conviction for selling marijuana to a misdemeanor. a martial arts school and
who really deserve to get a Associated Press earning a nursing degree
felony?” he said. long after his run-in with the
This lesser-known provision vocates, such as the Drug weed, and copies of Mar- osition 47, which reduced law.
of Proposition 64 allows Policy Alliance, have held golin’s own guide to mari- several nonviolent felonies It had been more than two
some convicts to wipe their free legal clinics to help juana laws in every state. to misdemeanors. decades since he was sen-
rap sheets clean and of- convicts get their records His office in the back of a Prosecutors in the county tenced to nine months in
fers hope for people with changed. Lawyers who bungalow in West Holly- researched which convicts jail. He only served about a
past convictions who are specialize in pot defense wood has the faint whiff of serving time or probation month.
seeking work or loans. Past have noted a steady flow pot in the air. were eligible for sentence The case was so old that
crimes can also pose a de- of interest from new and Since the passage of Prop- reductions and notified the the court file was incom-
portation threat for some former clients. osition 64, he’s gotten con- public defender’s office so plete.
convicts. Attorney Bruce Margolin victs out of prison, spared they could quickly get into A prosecutor rifling through
It’s hard to say how many said he got two to three others time behind bars court. Many were freed im- papers wondered whether
people have benefited, cases a week, many of and successfully knocked mediately, Solov said. he was eligible for relief. He
but more than 2,500 re- them decades old. felonies down to misde- “Whether we agree with had 8.5 pounds of marijua-
quests were filed to reduce Margolin has spent most meanors. the law or not, our job is na, she said. The file noted
convictions or sentences, of his five-decade career But he’s also encountered to enforce it,” Solov said. psychedelic mushrooms
according to partial state fighting pot cases and a lot of confusion about the “It’s the right thing to do. If also were found, and she
figures reported through pushing for legalization of law that went into effect someone’s in custody and questioned whether the
March. The figures do not marijuana, even making it immediately in November. they shouldn’t be in cus- discovery of guns made
yet include data from more a platform for unsuccess- “They were totally unpre- tody anymore, we have an him a threat.
than half of counties from ful runs for state Legislature pared,” Margolin said of obligation to address that.” Schlauch, 58, was never
the first quarter of the year. and Congress. judges and prosecutors in San Diego County led the charged with a gun of-
While the state does not A coffee table in the wait- courts he’s appeared in state with the most number fense. He said the regis-
tally the outcomes of those ing room of his office is cov- throughout the state. “It’s of petitions reported in the tered weapons were un-
requests, prosecutors said ered with copies of High amazing. You would have first two months after the loaded and locked in a
they have not fought most Times magazine, a book thought they should have law passed. It has reduced safe. His only conviction
petitions. called “Tokin’ Women,” had seminars to get them sentences or convictions was for possession with in-
Marijuana legalization ad- a history of women and up to speed so we don’t in nearly 400 cases, Solov tent to sell marijuana, Mar-
have to go through the said. golin said.
process of arguing things In Mendocino County, The judge flipped through
that are obvious, but we’re where pot farming is big the fat penal code book to
still getting that.” business and violent crimes review the new law.
That has not been the case are often tied to the crop, “I don’t see any reason-
in San Diego, where prose- District Attorney C. David able risk of danger. It seems
cutors watched polls trend- Eyster said he fights any like he’s entitled,” Judge
ing in favor of marijuana case not eligible for a re- Martin Herscovitz said. “The
legalization and moved duction, such as applicants petition is granted.”
proactively to prevent cha- with a major felony in their It barely took five minutes
os, said Rachel Solov, chief past, a sex offense or two to lift a weight he had car-
of the collaborative courts previous convictions for the ried so long. He never had
division of the district attor- same crime. to say a thing or show he
ney’s office. He said he would also fight had turned his life around.
They learned lessons from a reduction if someone is He bounded from the
the 2014 passage of Prop- caught cultivating weed courtroom, elated.q