Marijuana delivery service Eaze plans to announce later today that it is working with Code for America to help pay for Californians with marijuana convictions to get their records expunged.
What's new: Eaze will donate $4.20 for every delivery on April 20, up to $100,000 in total, to Code for America’s "Justice at Scale” campaign. That will help the organization work toward its initial goal of clearing 250,000 low-level drug convictions.
- Working county by county, Code for America is automating the once manual task of getting records expunged.
- So far it has cleared 8,132 records in San Francisco and is in the process of tackling records in San Joaquin and Los Angeles counties.
The big picture: There is a sharp racial and economic divide between those who took part in the marijuana business before it was legalized and the new generation of cannabis entrepreneurs.
What they're saying:
- Code for America CEO Jen Pahlka: "The voters passed a law that said pot is no longer illegal and we have possibly hundreds of thousands of people across the state who still have felony convictions on their record. It keeps people from opportunities they should have. It keeps people from housing, jobs, education."
- Eaze spokesperson Elizabeth Ashford: "People with low-level cannabis convictions face many employment barriers — both in the industry, and outside it. That's not right. Clearing records is a tangible way to support these folks, directly and immediately, and it's why we're so excited to partner with Code for America."
