Missouri appellate court overturns marijuana expungement denial

The Missouri Court of Appeals for the Western District issued a decision this week confirming that cases in which a Defendant was convicted of possession of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) are to be expunged pursuant to Article XIV, Section 2, of the Missouri Constitution as adopted by Missouri voters in November of 2022.  The Appeals Court held that, despite the fact that THC possession can be charged separately from marijuana possession, under the provisions of Article XIV, THC is now legal for adults to possess and therefore offenses involving THC must be expunged just as other marijuana offenses are.

The decision overturned a Lafayette County Circuit Judge’s denial of expungment for a defendant convicted of THC possession.  Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey had argued through his assistant that THC possession is somehow not covered by Article 14, despite language which clearly states that marijuana is defined as including resins and extracts from the cannabis plant.

If the Court had held otherwise, it would have called into question whether the sales of products containing THC at more than 200 licensed retail dispensaries are legal.

“The decision is a clear rebuke of Attorney General Bailey’s efforts to prevent expungement from taking place in as many cases as possible.  The Western District Court cited the plain language of Article XIV in holding that the Missouri Constitution mandates that THC possession cases must be expunged in the same manner as marijuana possession cases”, said Dan Viets, JD, Missouri NORML Coordinator and Chair of the national NORML Board of Directors.

   

Missouri law has for many years allowed prosecutors to charge the possession of products containing THC under a separate statute from the marijuana possession statute.  Under that law, the possession of any amount of any product containing THC is a felony offense.  In recent years, with the rising popularity of vaporization as an alternative means of consuming cannabis, more prosecutors have adopted the practice of using the THC possession statute.

The laws against marijuana possession and THC possession remain on the books in Missouri, although they have clearly been abrogated by the passage of Article XIV as an amendment to the Missouri Constitution.

View the Appellate Court decision here.