Bermuda helps clear cannabis records that omit the amount possessed

Bermuda changed its records-clearing rules on 3 November 2023 to help applicants whose old cannabis convictions did not state the amount possessed. Certain low-penalty cases could be treated as involving seven grams or less. The change addressed an obstacle that had left many applications awaiting a decision.

Old files did not answer a new legal question

The 2021 expungement process allowed people to apply to clear qualifying possession convictions from before the 2017 decriminalisation reform.

That process needed evidence that the conviction concerned seven grams or less. In September 2023, the government reported that roughly forty of fifty-one applications could not be processed because police records did not specify the weight.

The records had originally been created to record convictions, long before anyone needed to apply a seven-gram test for clearing them. The ministry and police worked on a way to resolve that mismatch.

A presumption helped qualifying low-penalty cases

The new regulations said that where an applicant’s relevant possession record omitted the amount, it could be deemed to fall within the statutory threshold.

The rule applied to convictions before 20 December 2017 where the penalty did not exceed a $1,000 fine or twelve months’ conditional discharge. Conditional discharge means a court releases a person subject to conditions.

This gave the decision-maker a legal basis to assess a qualifying case even when the original record could not supply the missing weight. Applicants still needed an expungement order under the existing process.

The order covered additional parts of the sentence

The amendment also addressed additional elements attached to a qualifying possession sentence. It required these to be cleared alongside the basic sentence and the conviction when an order was granted.

The regulations removed the word “simple” from the scheduled description of the relevant offence. The changes made the records-clearing rules more workable while retaining an application and decision for each case.

The remedy followed the problem applicants encountered

When the scheme launched, the government had already warned that older records might be difficult to retrieve or lack important details. The later application figures showed how those difficulties affected the process.

The 2023 regulations took the next step by changing the legal treatment of missing information. For people in Bermuda seeking relief from an old cannabis conviction, eligibility could then be considered using both the recorded penalty and the new presumption.^[1][2][3][4]