Timothy Surprenant was convicted of growing marijuana in 2008, a felony he has to disclose over and over again when applying for jobs.
A union mason who lives in Portland, Surprenant was kicked off one job after a manager learned of the conviction. He's not allowed to work on federal projects or prisons. He's not permitted to travel to Canada. He seriously considered training to become an X-ray technician but worried his conviction would trip up his chances of finding work.
"There are jobs I can't do because of having this felony," said Surprenant, 42.
The conviction, stemming from a medical marijuana grow much larger than what was allowed by law, is an embarrassment he thought he would never live down.
Last week, Surprenant was one of about 68 Oregonians who applied to have old marijuana convictions sealed in a three-day event hosted by the Oregon Cannabis Association. While the process doesn't erase those crimes from their records, it allows them to claim on an employment application or housing form that they've never been convicted of a crime.
Oregon has long allowed people convicted of misdemeanors and some felonies to ask to have those convictions set aside or sealed. But the Oregon Legislature this year made two additional and significant changes to the way the state deals with marijuana: It reduced most marijuana-related offenses, including growing and selling cannabis, and made it easier for people to have old pot convictions set aside.
Under the new law, when someone applies to have a previous marijuana-related conviction set aside, the court must consider how that person's crime would be classified today.
The change means that Surprenant and others who previously weren't eligible to have old marijuana felonies set aside may now ask a state court to seal them.
"So it was basically a massive reclassification of prior offenses for the purposes of the set-aside," said Margie Paris, a professor at the University of Oregon's law school.
"I think its laudable because it sets up a system for the orderly administration of justice," said Paris. "If the Legislature hadn't done this, individuals would have to go in and ask the court to retroactively apply the new classification and by and large people would be left without a remedy."
Oregon's sweeping shift in how it views old marijuana-related felony convictions sets it apart from Washington and Colorado, the first states to legalize cannabis for recreational use. Neither has retroactively reclassified old marijuana crimes to allow people to seal those records. People may apply to have convictions set aside, but those cases are evaluated on a case by case basis.
Aaron Pelley, a Seattle attorney, said efforts to pass similar legislation in Washington have failed even though the state legalized marijuana two years before Oregon did.
"We are three years out and we still haven't been able to do it," said Pelley, who called old convictions "an economic death sentence." "I have clients who have essentially been arrested, prosecuted and jailed for possession of a gram of marijuana and they still have that on their records," he said.
Even with the change, not all marijuana-related convictions in Oregon are eligible to be sealed. Felony convictions for growing or selling marijuana within 1,000 feet of a school and selling pot to a minor can't be set aside.
And people applying to have their old felonies sealed still have to meet a list of requirements, such as waiting three years from the date of their conviction to apply. They also can't have additional convictions since they were convicted of the marijuana felony they want sealed.
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The state projects about 300 people to go through the process of having a marijuana arrest or conviction set aside this year, about twice as many as last year, according to data compiled by the Oregon Judicial Department.
To get old convictions sealed, people must file paperwork in the county where the conviction occurred. Multnomah, Josephine and Deschutes counties are projected to see more applications than elsewhere in the state, according to state data.
In all, the Oregon State Police estimates that 78,300 marijuana-related convictions may qualify under the new provision, according to a report submitted to lawmakers earlier this year.
Rep. Lew Frederick, D-Portland, a proponent of the change, said he was regularly approached by constituents, especially African-Americans, whose old marijuana felonies made it difficult to find work, housing or to volunteer to chaperone their child's field trip.
"It is a humbling experience to have people standing in the middle of Safeway or Fred Meyer or New Seasons, crying because now they think they can begin the process to get rid of this particular thing that's hung around their neck since they were 18 and now they are in their 40s or 50s."
Surprenant said the chance to seal his old conviction "is going to change my life."
"It chokes me up to even talk about it," he said. "It means a lot to me."
-- Noelle Crombie
503-276-7184; @noellecrombie