Kansas City municipal courts now have zero open marijuana cases. Here’s what that means

Kansas City’s municipal courts now have zero open or pending marijuana cases, according to city officials.

Since Amendment 3 passed on Nov. 8, the city’s municipal courts have worked to either dismiss or waive the fees and penalties of open and pending marijuana cases in the city. The city courts have now closed all of their open or pending marijuana cases, more than 2,400.

“We don’t have any open marijuana cases in our court,” Kansas City Municipal Court Administrator Megan Pfannenstiel said.

Kansas City’s municipal courts strictly dealt with marijuana charges related to possession. Local courts do not handle cases that involve intent to distribute or other severe cases. Those cases are dealt with in circuit courts.

Municipal charges are different from most criminal charges because they are typically misdemeanors or ordinance violations and don’t involve a jury.

Kansas City decriminalized marijuana by removing penalties for marijuana possession from its city code in 2020. Kansas City officials were working to lessen the penalties for marijuana possession even before 2020.

In 2017, voters agreed to reduce the fee for anyone who possessed less than 35 grams of weed to $25. In 2018, when the medical marijuana was legalized, the Jackson County courts also announced that it would stop prosecuting marijuana charges.

Since then, the courts have not opened any new cases for marijuana possession. So all of the cases that were closed after the passage of Amendment 3 were from before July 2020.

Many cases were closed through dismissal, whereas others may have already received a judgment, but the courts were able to remove any fines or penalties related to the cases.

As soon as amendment 3 passed, the courts stopped processing those cases completely, according to Pfannenstiel.

Pfannenstiel said that although some of the cases that were closed by the courts were possession cases involving large amounts of marijuana, the municipal court judges did not consider the amount of marijuana that was in the defendant’s possession when deciding to close the case.

“We are not distinguishing between (that) in our analysis of the cases,” Pfannenstiel said. “The amount wouldn’t have been a part of our court records.”

According to the amendment, city courts are not required to dismiss or close marijuana cases. So, this is an extra step that Kansas City municipal courts are taking.

“We are trying to seal and close all the marijuana cases in an abundance of caution,” she said. “We are trying to protect (people) who have a marijuana conviction.”

Pfannenstiel said one of the main objectives of getting all the open and pending marijuana cases closed at the local level is to protect those who have previously had marijuana charges, so those charges are not used against them in anyway down the road.

Is this the same as expungement?

No. It’s important to note that closing these kinds of possession cases in municipal courts is not the same as the expungement process that is outlined in Amendment 3. Those expungements will happen at the circuit court level.

Pfannenstiel said Kansas City’s municipal courts are standing by for any guidance on whether local courts will have any authority over sealing records.

The amendment’s automatic expungement clause will eventually seal the records of those with nonviolent marijuana charges.

Any person who is not currently incarcerated but has a nonviolent marijuana charge, with the exception of driving under the influence and selling weed to minors, will have their record reviewed and expunged by the courts by June 8, 2023. The circuit court of Jackson County doesn’t have a set timeline for when those expungements will start.

Cases will be expunged in order of the severity of the case, so less severe cases will be expunged first, according John Payne, a spokesperson for Legal Missouri 2022, the group that launched the ballot initiative and pushed for the 2018 amendment that legalized medical marijuana in the state.

“The Court is in the process of reviewing thousands of case records to see which ones would qualify for expungements, in addition to processing the petitions for expungements we may receive. We will begin entering appropriate orders just as quickly as we can,” Jackson County Circuit Court spokesperson Valerie Hartman said in an emailed statement.

Sealing those records could affect thousands of people’s access to employment, housing and wages. Expungement will not apply to people with charges of violent crimes, or whose offenses involved distribution to a minor or driving under the influence of marijuana.

People who are on parole or probation will also be eligible for an automatic expungement. People who are currently incarcerated will be able to seek expungement for nonviolent marijuana charges through a petition process.