# Pot goes legal all the way, any time. What happens to people serving time on pot charges? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 16, 2016, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pot-goes-legal-all-the-way-any-time-what-happens-to-people-serving-time-on-pot-charges/766105 "2016-09-16T19:27:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2016, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pot-goes-legal-all-the-way-any-time-what-happens-to-people-serving-time-on-pot-charges/766105/1 "2016-09-16T19:27:19Z")
See query. Historical parallels galore in US jurisprudence? Prohibition? Less famous cases where law changes? ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2016, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pot-goes-legal-all-the-way-any-time-what-happens-to-people-serving-time-on-pot-charges/766105/2 "2016-09-16T19:29:11Z")
They stay in unless the Governor or President (depending on the charges) issues a pardon or commutes their sentences. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2016, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pot-goes-legal-all-the-way-any-time-what-happens-to-people-serving-time-on-pot-charges/766105/3 "2016-09-16T19:59:06Z")
There are several prior threads on this topic with comments from the lawyers. Search may prove enlightening. ---
**Author:** ![Duke\_of\_Rat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Duke\_of\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duke_of_Rat)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2016, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pot-goes-legal-all-the-way-any-time-what-happens-to-people-serving-time-on-pot-charges/766105/4 "2016-09-16T19:59:45Z")
A thread along the same lines regarding prohibition, seems as though breaking a law in effect at the time means you were guilty at the time. An example (paraphrased from the thread), if you get a ticket for doing 70 in a 55, then the speed limit is raised to 70, you don’t get your fine back - you broke the law in effect at the time. > **[When alcohol prohibition ended, did alcohol criminals get out of jail?](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=414121)** > > In other words, say that during prohibition I was arrested for having a still in the woods. I was sentenced to two years in jail and during my first year, the Government made alcohol legal again, did they let me out or did I serve the remainder of... ---
**Author:** ![Pantastic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3bc359/32.png) [@Pantastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pantastic)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2016, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pot-goes-legal-all-the-way-any-time-what-happens-to-people-serving-time-on-pot-charges/766105/5 "2016-09-16T20:17:36Z")
If a law is overturned by a court decision, then anyone convicted is either freed or has grounds to appeal their conviction that will probably be upheld. In that case, what happens is that the court is saying ‘this law was never valid in the first place’. But unless you have the supreme court rule that drug laws are unconstitutional (which is more than a little unlikely), then you’re talking about the legislature repealing a law - in which case, you’re in prison for breaking a valid law, so there’s nothing special that happens. A number of governors have done mass pardons to go along with legalization, but it’s not automatic, and not something that’s required. This happens all the time, it’s not remotely controversial for someone to serve time for something that later became legal by a law passing. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2016, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pot-goes-legal-all-the-way-any-time-what-happens-to-people-serving-time-on-pot-charges/766105/6 "2016-09-16T23:56:57Z")
Of course, the same political environment that would make such a law likely to pass would also make a governor likely to issue pardons. But it’s not a guarantee, especially if the legislature and executive are held by different parties. ---
**Author:** ![Chessic\_Sense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7c8e57/32.png) [@Chessic\_Sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chessic_Sense)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2016, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pot-goes-legal-all-the-way-any-time-what-happens-to-people-serving-time-on-pot-charges/766105/7 "2016-09-18T21:35:03Z")
Can the legislature “pardon” everyone? Can they, as part of the legislation authorizing the activity, forgive everyone formerly convicted under related statutes? ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2016, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pot-goes-legal-all-the-way-any-time-what-happens-to-people-serving-time-on-pot-charges/766105/8 "2016-09-18T22:49:51Z")
I suppose one might argue that, just like punishing someone for an act retroactively made illegal, that that could be considered an ex post facto law. ---
**Author:** ![Projammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/projammer/32/559_2.png) [@Projammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Projammer)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2016, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pot-goes-legal-all-the-way-any-time-what-happens-to-people-serving-time-on-pot-charges/766105/9 "2016-09-18T23:21:18Z")
> [@Chessic\_Sense](#): > > Can the legislature “pardon” everyone? Can they, as part of the legislation authorizing the activity, forgive everyone formerly convicted under related statutes? Until on of the legal beagles weighs in. They could theoretically pardon everyone serving federal time, (I think) but they have no jurisdiction on state charges. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2016, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pot-goes-legal-all-the-way-any-time-what-happens-to-people-serving-time-on-pot-charges/766105/10 "2016-09-19T00:33:44Z")
That depends on who you mean by “they”. Presumably, state legislatures would have no bearing on those serving federal time. ---
**Author:** ![UDS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecae2f/32.png) [@UDS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UDS)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2016, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pot-goes-legal-all-the-way-any-time-what-happens-to-people-serving-time-on-pot-charges/766105/11 "2016-09-19T00:51:12Z")
> [@Chessic\_Sense](#): > > Can the legislature “pardon” everyone? Can they, as part of the legislation authorizing the activity, forgive everyone formerly convicted under related statutes? The legislature might not be able formally to pardon people, if the courts construe the constitution as vesting the power of pardon in the executive rather than the legislature. But they can certainly pass legislation providing for the immediate and unconditional release of a class of prisoners, for their convictions to be expunged, etc. ---
**Author:** ![MikeS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/919ad9/32.png) [@MikeS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MikeS)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2016, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pot-goes-legal-all-the-way-any-time-what-happens-to-people-serving-time-on-pot-charges/766105/12 "2016-09-19T00:56:56Z")
> [@Chessic\_Sense](#): > > Can the legislature “pardon” everyone? Can they, as part of the legislation authorizing the activity, forgive everyone formerly convicted under related statutes? It’ll probably vary from state to state, but I think that the power to pardon is often reserved to the governor rather than to the legislature. And the governor’s power to pardon doesn’t always extend to a “blanket” order — witness the recent kerfuffle over [the Virginia Governor’s blanket restoration of voting rights to ex-offenders.](https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-politics/virginia-court-invalidates-gov-terry-mcauliffes-order-restoring-felon-voting-rights/2016/07/22/3e1d45f6-5058-11e6-a7d8-13d06b37f256_story.html) ---
**Author:** ![robert\_columbia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2016, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pot-goes-legal-all-the-way-any-time-what-happens-to-people-serving-time-on-pot-charges/766105/13 "2016-09-19T01:57:50Z")
> [@UDS](#): > > The legislature might not be able formally to pardon people, if the courts construe the constitution as vesting the power of pardon in the executive rather than the legislature. But they can certainly pass legislation providing for the immediate and unconditional release of a class of prisoners, for their convictions to be expunged, etc. Perhaps one way to do it without overstepping on the Executive prerogative of pardon could be for the legislature to create a new type of parole that has no monitoring or conditions (e.g. no parole officer to report to, no drug tests, no travel restrictions, allowed to leave the state, etc.), and then provide in the law for this parole to be guaranteed to any prisoner currently incarcerated for a law that has since been repealed. People could thus go “free” in all but name until either the expiration of their original sentences or the actual receipt of a pardon.