Nearly half a million records of minor marijuana arrests were wiped off the books after Illinois legalized cannabis in 2019 — but only a fraction have been completely cleared from the public record, according to legal aid groups across the state.
With the unofficial “4/20” holiday just over a week away, legal aid organizations sought to remind state residents that they might still have cannabis offenses on their records even though tens of thousands of convictions were expunged automatically by sweeping moves mandated by the state’s marijuana laws, as well as action by Gov. J.B. Pritzker and Kim Foxx, state’s attorney in Cook County.
