NORTHAMPTON — By any assessment, including his own, Ezra Parzybok was lucky.
It was nearly two years ago when a National Guard helicopter flew over his Norwood Avenue home, spotting the marijuana plants growing in his backyard.
Parzybok, who’s a medical marijuana consultant and a state-registered medical marijuana patient, consented to a search of his home, during which authorities seized 67 marijuana plants, 20 one-gallon bags of the drug, 59 jars of hash oil, three scales, a heat sealer and a collection of various ledgers and receipts and about $1,600 in cash — the remnants of Parzybok’s well-intentioned, but illegal, residential marijuana supply center.
State law allows a certified medical marijuana patient to possess 10 ounces, considered a two-month supply. Parzybok’s supply far exceeded that.
Parzybok managed to avoid serving any time behind bars and have his drug charges expunged after brokering a deal with prosecutors in which he admitted to sufficient facts for three possession with intention to distribute charges. He served 90 days of probation.
But, of course, not all cases yield outcomes like Parzybok’s. This legislative session, lawmakers have filed three bills that, if passed, would allow those convicted or have pleaded guilty to marijuana crimes to apply to have the charges expunged.
That sort of provision, Parzybok said in an interview, “would’ve been huge.”
Parzybok praised the proposed legislation, calling it a “step forward.”
“If my case had not turned out the way it did, it would’ve devastated my family, my community, my relationship with my children,” he said. “That would’ve been my first call to my lawyers.”
While Parzybok maintains that all marijuana crimes deserve the consideration of expungement, “I also believe in a measured and conservative process of the law,” he said. “Right now, it’s illegal to distribute cannabis … you want to respect all sides … I think that the expungement law should follow where we are currently with legalization.”
Marvin Cable is a defense attorney in Northampton who often argues marijuana cases. His clients, according to his website, have included cultivators, dispensaries, medical marijuana patients, product manufacturers and criminal defendants.
“I can tell you that a good percentage of people that have to (deal) with marijuana-related offenses are minorities, and … records keep coming back to haunt them,” he said.
Cable also echoed Parzybok’s sentiment that any possible new law, with regard to expungement of marijuana charges, should fall in line with what the law allows.
“There’s no one case I’ve ever had that’s the same as any one before,” Cable said. “That’s the way I would treat (the proposed legislation) … on a case-by case basis with a low threshold and aligns with the current (legal) system.”
The timing of the various pieces of proposed legislation is fitting. Last November, voters approved a ballot measure that gave the green light to recreational marijuana use.
Rep. Aaron Vega, D-Holyoke, who serves on the Joint Committee on Marijuana Policy and is spearheading H.2785, “An Act Relative to the Expungement of Records of Marijuana Arrests,” says the underlying goal of the bill is to create a dialogue about the drug, and how it should be discussed in legislative chambers, now that relevant laws are changing. Most recently, Vega’s bill was presented in the Senate.
In hearing from his constituents and their run-ins with law enforcement regarding marijuana offenses, Vega emphasized that, oftentimes, these are convictions that are following people and hindering them from certain opportunities, such as securing housing or furthering their education.
“I recently had an individual who was going to (Holyoke Community College) and wanted to transfer to UMass and couldn’t because of his record,” Vega said. “If marijuana is legal, why should we still be holding people accountable for something they did before?”
“There’s a big push here for juvenile expungement,” he said. “If they have not done anything (since then) and they’re 21, that shouldn’t be on their record.”
Vega also said his bill may become a part of bigger, more all-encompassing legislation.
The representative also stressed that the bill is not intended as a panacea for all possible marijuana offenses. Though the legislation doesn’t yet specify many parameters for expugnable offenses, he said, the law is intended to apply to “smaller crimes” and would likely not be applicable to trafficking offenses.
Michael Majchrowicz can be reached at mmajchrowicz@gazettenet.com.