California cannabis conviction relief: checking your record

California's Proposition 64 changed marijuana penalties on November 9, 2016, and opened routes to relief for earlier convictions. The California Courts self-help guide identifies possession, cultivation, possession for sale, and unlawful transport offenses that may qualify. Depending on the offense and circumstances, relief can mean reducing a conviction to a misdemeanor or infraction, dismissing and sealing it, or destroying certain records. Eligibility depends on the particular record; legalization did not make every cannabis conviction disappear. [1]

AB 1793 moved much of that work into an automatic government review. The Department of Justice was directed to identify potentially eligible convictions and give prosecutors the cases for review. Prosecutors had until July 1, 2020, to identify challenges, with courts reporting results so the state criminal-history database could be updated. The DOJ directs people asking about an individual case's review to the district attorney or public defender in the county of conviction. [2]

A later law, AB 1706, added implementation deadlines. For eligible cases not challenged by the July 2020 deadline, courts were required to grant the applicable relief and update their records by March 1, 2023. DOJ was required to update state criminal histories by July 1, 2023, prevent dissemination of inaccurate information, and conduct an awareness campaign. Those dates describe statutory duties already due; they are not proof that any particular person's record is correct today. [3]

The practical starting point is the court that handled the conviction. California Courts says people can check whether automatic relief occurred and, if an eligible record remains unresolved, use forms CR-400 and CR-401. A separate DOJ record-review request lets a person inspect their own state criminal history. DOJ provides instructions for fingerprints, fees and possible fee waivers, plus form BCIA 8706 to challenge an inaccurate or incomplete response with supporting documents. [1][4]

Read the actual order closely. DOJ's current sealing guidance distinguishes sealing from physical destruction and from other forms of dismissal or record relief. Sealed information can remain in the state database for legally authorized criminal-justice uses even though it is not disclosed for applicant, licensing, or certification purposes. Keeping the order and checking the resulting history helps identify the precise remaining issue: a missing court action, an unreported disposition, or a database entry requiring correction. [5][4]