Hire an Attorney if Charged with Marijuana Crime

Video Transcribed:  Three magic words to make a misdemeanor marijuana charge disappear in Oklahoma. That’s right. I’m Oklahoma attorney James Wirth and I’m about to tell you the way that two laws that went into effect around the same time, can work together to make a medical marijuana charge disappear by stating three magic words.

All right, so this occurred 2018. We had two things going on about the same time. We had both the movement regarding medical marijuana and we had a movement regarding criminal justice reform.

So the first one came in the form of the initiative petition a 788. It became state question 788 and that passed and it’s got a provision regarding simple possession of marijuana and I’ll read it to you here. It says, possession of up to one and a half ounces of marijuana by a person who can state a medical condition, but not in possession of a state issued medical marijuana license, shall constitute a misdemeanor offense with the fine not to exceed $400.

So with that, possession of marijuana went from a misdemeanor with up to a year in jail to, if you can state a medical condition, a maximum of $400, so long as you only have one and a half ounces or less. That’s according to the statute is a little over 40 grams.

So that’s the first part of it but that’s not enough by itself. We’ve got the second part of it and that is the new expungement statute that went into effect and it basically says that if you’re charged with a misdemeanor, you get a conviction on that, but you don’t get any jail time, don’t get a suspended sentence and the fine is under $501 and you don’t have other cases or felony conviction, that it’s eligible for immediate expungement.

So those two things working together, you’ve got a one and a half ounces, you’re cited with that, you state a medical condition; that’s the three magic words. I have, state the condition. Oklahoma hasn’t listed what the conditions need to be.

Other States have things such as PTSD, anxiety, glaucoma, seizures Tourette’s Syndrome, all kinds of conditions can qualify you for medical marijuana license and other states. In Oklahoma, as long as you have a doctor’s referral, it doesn’t matter what the condition is.

So the statute doesn’t say what condition you have to name, it doesn’t even say you have to have that condition or be diagnosed with that condition. It just says if you state it maximum, fine $400. So, state a condition, pay the fine of $400, then under the other statute, you’re immediately eligible to file to get it expunged.

That erases the court record and the arrest record if there is one and then based under Oklahoma law, once you get a Section 18 expungement, the event never occurred.

So in Oklahoma, right now based on the plain reading of these two new laws, if you state those three words I have, then it basically can magically go away. But if you’re in this circumstance yourself, you don’t want to take this general information. You’re going to want this specific advice to your circumstances that only an Oklahoma attorney can provide.

If you want to talk to me for a consultation, go to makelaweasy.com.