Voters legalized weed in Missouri. Here’s what’s next for expungements and employers

More than a million Missouri voters approved a constitutional amendment to legalize cannabis for adults, but the historic election win was just the beginning.

Along with setting the framework for dispensaries to legally sell cannabis, Amendment 3 orders courts to issue "automatic expungement" of nonviolent marijuana convictions from criminal records by June 8, 2023. Eligible felony marijuana-related convictions have to be cleared by Dec. 8, 2023. But legal experts have raised concerns about those deadlines.

“They're automatic for the people who are getting the records expunged, but there's absolutely nothing automatic about it for the courts,” said John Payne, who oversaw the winning campaign for the ballot initiative in November. Payne served in the same role when Missouri legalized medical marijuana in 2018.