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The Colorado Court of Appeals has ruled that citizens convicted of cannabis possession prior to legalization may now be eligible to have those decisions overturned.

Colorado’s Constitution’s recently passed Amendment 64 says adults are legally allowed to buy up to one ounce of cannabis, but left previously convicted cannabis users in jail. However, on March 13, Colorado’s appeals panel said that part of an earlier decision in a 2011 case for cannabis possession should be vacated.

The judges found that “Amendment 64, by decriminalizing the personal use or possession of one ounce or less of marijuana, meets the statutory requirement for ‘a significant change in the law’ and eliminates and thus mitigates the penalties for persons convicted of engaging in such conduct,” and the law “applies retroactively to defendants whose convictions under those provisions were subject to appeal or postconviction motion on the effective date of the amendment.”

The ruling only applies to those convicted of possessing one ounce or less.

Written by Alternative Free Press

Colorado Approves Retroactive Legalization of Cannabis Possession by AlternativeFreePress.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Sources for this article:
1. Division I Opinion by JUDGE MILLER Taubman and Lichtenstein, JJ., concur http://www.courts.state.co.us/Courts/Court_of_Appeals/Opinion/2014/11CA1929-PD.pdf

2. Colo. Court Rules Some Marijuana Convictions Can Be Overturned http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2014/03/13/289961369/colo-court-rules-some-marijuana-convictions-can-be-overturned