Dear Editor,

I have an issue. Since the decriminalisation of marijuana there have been no automatic expunging of records related to marijuana use as was promised by the Administration that decriminalised it; nor does it seem forthcoming.

After years of discrimination and prejudice, sometimes with incarceration, marijuana users has faced heavy bias in society and a criminal record impinges on one’s career and things such as visa applications.

The normal process of expunging is tedious and, after years of injustice, I think the Government and business sectors who watched the incarceration of users and the staining of their records, now reap real world profit from what was once a criminal act. Yet the Government and private sector who now profit have made no sort of social justice move to restore the lives that have been inconvenienced by having a ganja record. This is unjust and unfair.

Then to have the record expunged themselves they have to pay fees, get fingerprinted and find justices of the peace and pastors and jump through hoops all while those who discriminated against the users are now the profiteers.

This needs to be rectified post-haste. Why should the life of a user be constrained in such ways while so many now profit? Give the common citizen a fair attempt at making life without having the burden of a ganja record or to go through the unnecessary tedium of expunging the record.

I hope my plea makes sense and has not fallen on deaf ears. In the interest of social equity and social justice the Government needs to act now.

Yannick Nesta Pessoa

yannickpessoa@yahoo.com