Thousands of marijuana convictions out of Contra CostaCounty will be dismissed as part of a push by the district attorney's office toabide by the terms of Proposition 64, which decriminalized personal use ofcannabis in 2016.

Prosecutors worked with Code for America to cull throughthousands of records in order to identify and clear 3,264 marijuana convictionsfor roughly 2,400 people eligible under the law, according to the Contra Costa CountyDistrict Attorney's Office.

Prop. 64 allows anyone 21 years old or older to buy andpossess up to 28.5 grams of marijuana and up to 8 grams of "concentratedcannabis."

In 2018, then-Gov. Jerry Brown signed a law that requires prosecutorsto review all marijuana convictions by July 1, 2020 to determine if they areeligible to be dismissed and sealed from public view.

The law requires courts to automatically reduce or dismisssuch convictions if prosecutors don't file a dispute by that same date.

"Far too often old criminal convictions for minor drugoffenses can leave a lasting mark on an individual's life," said DistrictAttorney Diana Becton in a news release. "The removal of these convictionseffectively reduces barriers to licensing, education, housing andemployment."

The effort is intended to "address wrongs caused by thefailed war on drugs" that disproportionately affected people of color,prosecutors said.

About 36 percent of county residents whose marijuana caseswill be dismissed are African-American, 15 percent are Latino, 2 percent areAsian or Pacific Islanders, 45 percent are white and 2 percent are"other" or unknown, prosecutors said.

Becton said it's "extremely unlikely" any of thedismissals will result in anyone being released from jail since "these arejust not the types of offences that would have received very lengthysentences."

"Having one on your record does interfere with a personsability to move on with their lives," she said.

Prosecutors used Code for America's "Clear MyRecord" technology, which automatically culled through huge amounts ofcriminal history data from the California Department of Justice going back toabout 1970 in mere moments, and saved Becton's office untold hours ofpainstaking work.

"I can't even imagine how many hours it would havetaken us to pull together this kind of data," she said.

Code for America, which donated its time and resources tothe county, is a nonprofit organization that works to develop technology solutionsto make government more accessible and efficient.

Contra Costa County is the fifth county to work with Codefor America to clear marijuana convictions; other counties include SanFrancisco, Sacramento, San Joaquin and Los Angeles.

While the county doesn't have a way to contact everyindividual affected by the dismissals, people can email the Contra Costa CountyDistrict Attorney's Office at DA-Prop64@contracostada.org to see if theirrecords are involved.

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Thousands of Contra Costa County Pot Convictions to Be Cleared Under Prop 64 - NBC Bay Area