Maricopa County deputy prosecutor details challenges of expunging marijuana convictions

OG Article By Matthew Casey

September 29 2025

When Arizona voters legalized recreational marijuana in 2020, the measure also allowed some past offenses to be expunged.

But a Maricopa County deputy prosecutor has detailed challenges to starting that process in an Ohio State criminal journal.

Arizona’s Proposition 207 allows for certain old marijuana offenses to be erased.

The Ohio State article subtitled "Lessons from Maricopa County" says prosecutors file most of those requests, even though state rules bar submitting them in bulk.

And it’s hard for prosecutors to identify qualifying cases because there’s no statewide convictions database.

Marijuana charges can be filed as either felonies or misdemeanors. But those records are not stored long term.

As of January 2024, the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office had filed nearly 23,000 expungement requests.