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CO Overturning Old Marijuana Possession Charges

CO Marijuana Law

There is good news coming out of Colorado for people who were arrested for marijuana possession dating as far back as December of 2012. The Colorado Court of Appeals announced last week that anyone who was arrested for possession since Amendment 64 (legalizing marijuana for recreational purposes) went into effect are eligible to have their convictions transposed.

Before Amendment 64, the state of Colorado was prosecuting over 9,000 cases a year for simple possession. Once marijuana became legalized a large portion of these cases were still in the courts. So anyone who was convicted before the amendment passed is unfortunately out of luck, but Brian Vicente, one of the amendment’s authors still sees this as a “huge victory”.

Attorney Brian Emeson says that he still sees a fair amount of marijuana appeals, proving that prosecutors are still adamant about getting these convictions. He hopes that this ruling will help shift their focus towards more “pressing matters”. There is still the concern that many people who were convicted during this time will choose not to appeal simply because of the time and money required to do so.