The United States House of Representatives Judiciary Committee recently passed a bill titled the Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement Act of 2019, or the MORE Act. If passed by the full House and approved by the United States Senate, marijuana would no longer be considered a federally controlled substance, the impact of which is far-reaching.

Currently, marijuana is categorized as a federally controlled substance, along with other substances such as heroin. The MORE Act proposes to decriminalize marijuana by striking it from this list. “With already 33 states and the District of Columbia legalizing marijuana,” says Attorney Brian Leifert of Leifert & Leifert, “a federal move to legalize marijuana would have a tremendous impact.” As a result, the MORE Act calls not only for the decriminalization of marijuana, but it also addresses federal marijuana convictions, juvenile adjudications, and arrests.

If enacted, the MORE Act provides for the expungement of federal marijuana convictions and adjudications of juvenile delinquency for federal marijuana offenses. Arrests connected to the convictions and juvenile adjudications would be expunged as well, and related court records would be sealed. Those federal marijuana offenses eligible for expungement include those entered on or after May 1, 1971 through the date before the enactment of the MORE Act.

Additionally, there’s more relief offered under the MORE Act. Individuals currently serving a sentence for a federal marijuana offense are entitled to a sentencing review hearing, resulting in the expungement of the conviction or juvenile adjudication, the vacating of the current sentence, and the sealing of court records. Under the MORE Act, those who are considered to be serving a sentence include individuals on active sentence, as well as those on probation, parole, supervised release, official detention, pre-release custody, and work release.

Ultimately, expungements under the MORE Act offer tremendous relief to those affected – an expungement clears the individual’s arrest and conviction or juvenile adjudication, seals all related court records, and protects them from having to disclose any such conviction or adjudication of delinquency in the future. In other words, the expungement treats the offense as if it never occurred.

Whether the far-reaching arm of the MORE Act becomes a reality is yet to be seen, however, as it awaits the process to determine if it becomes law.