Florida Bill May Expunge Some Cannabis Arrests -- Does It Go Far Enough?
Jeffrey Donnelly was a 22-year-old college student when he was arrested on a felony charge for possessing a two-inch-tall marijuana plant in 1997 — an arrest that is still affecting his life today.
The 45-year-old Florida native says the tiny plant was growing out of a coffee cup on his back porch when Brevard County sheriff's deputies came across it while dealing with his roommate for an unrelated matter.
"The plant would have never lived," Donnelly says. "I was a college kid and didn't know what I was doing."
But almost 25 years later, the conviction for cultivation — a third-degree felony — still prevents him from easily finding housing or employment, even though cannabis is now legal in medicinal and/or recreational form in a majority of states.
Read more: https://www.browardpalmbeach.com/news/florida-bill-could-help-expunge-marijuana-convictions-10845521