If Illinois legalizes recreational cannabis, David Tello plans to come home. Until he decides whether to return to his wife and two children in Peoria, Illinois, in May, he’s staying in California, where he’s helping his brother relaunch their cannabis company in that state’s new recreational market. If recreational cannabis becomes legal here, Tello will launch MelloVibes, a cannabis dispensary, in Peoria. But for now, he’s legally blocked from the industry he knows best because of a previous conviction that he later got sealed.
The time behind bars made him more patient, but it was hard to be away from his children, who are now in or headed to college.
Cook County state’s attorney Kim Foxx announced in January that her office would begin expunging misdemeanor cannabis convictions. State Representative La Shawn Ford introduced the Criminal Identification bill, which would seal nonviolent criminal records including possession of 10 grams or less of cannabis after ten years. Other states have made an effort to expunge cannabis convictions, but it’s important for Illinois to automate or simplify that process as much as possible, said State Representative Kelly Cassidy (14th), who has been working with State Senator Heather Steans (7th) to craft recreational cannabis legislation. Cassidy said Illinois should also improve the entrepreneurship support and law enforcement components.
Activists, especially advocates of color, are eyeing the legislation to make sure the recreational legalization doesn’t repeat the same mistakes as the medicinal one. Echoing Cassidy’s hope for Illinois, Kiana Hughes, education director of Chicago NORML, a cannabis policy, education, and entrepreneurship advocacy group, said Illinois has a chance to legalize cannabis while implementing social equity measures.
These law enforcement concerns are important, because there is mistrust within the Black community, Hughes said. Removing smell as a probable cause for arrest is critical for ensuring cannabis consumers don’t get arrested on questionable grounds, she said.
Mitchell, a former trial attorney at the Cook County public defender’s office, said legalizing recreational cannabis could reduce the court’s number of misdemeanor cases but wouldn’t do much for decreasing the prison population, because the majority of people in prison are incarcerated for non-cannabis-related offenses. According to Illinois Department of Corrections statistics, the percentage of state prisoners with cannabis convictions has not risen above 2 percent between 2005 and 2017.
