How a Michigan Marijuana Set-Aside Actually Works in 2026

The warehouse email still named the case.

You had checked no on the application. The flower in your coat is legal in Michigan. The background company still printed a possession line from before December 2018.

That gap is the problem this page is about. A legal jar in 2026 does not edit a conviction the court already entered. A set-aside is the court path that can pull that line off the public record. It does not make every copy of the case disappear.

I am Jamie. I grow sun-grown organic flower for Divine Toke, a Detroit-area Michigan farm. This is the paperwork question: who qualifies to set aside an old Michigan marijuana conviction in 2026, what gets cleared, and what a pardon does not erase.

This is not legal advice. The lines below come from the statutes and the state pages linked in the same paragraph. If your charge is not on the list, talk to a lawyer before you file. Detroit residents can start with the city's free program, named later on this page. The longer history of who got arrested sits in Juneteenth and the war on drugs. This page is the 2026 form, not that history.

A urine test at a Michigan job is a different problem from an old conviction. That one is covered in can you get fired for legal weed.

Who qualifies to set aside an old Michigan marijuana conviction in 2026? #

Three doors exist, and they do not share one rule. A misdemeanor marihuana offense can use a short application under MCL 780.621e. Some older convictions can fall off with no application under automatic Clean Slate in MCL 780.621g. Anything that is not on the marijuana-misdemeanor list has to use the general application in MCL 780.621, if that conviction is even allowed to be set aside.

The Michigan Attorney General says Clean Slate, set-aside, and expungement mean the same thing in this state. People use all three words for one court result: the conviction comes off the public record. They do not mean the governor signed a pardon. They do not mean the arrest never happened.

Door	Who it is for	Do you file?	Clock
Marijuana misdemeanor application	Possession, use, or marihuana paraphernalia sale on the MC 227a list, or a matching local ordinance	Yes. One application per convicting court	AG FAQ: no waiting period. File after April 11, 2021
Automatic Clean Slate	Eligible misdemeanors and a smaller set of felonies that are not on the ban list	No. MSP runs it when the years have passed	7 years for a misdemeanor. 10 years for a felony
General application	A conviction that is not on the 621e list and is not banned by MCL 780.621c	Yes. Form MC 227, prints, and a $50 state-police fee	3, 5, or 7 years under MCL 780.621d. That clock is the general application, not the marijuana form

Check the public record before you pick a door. The Attorney General tells people to use ICHAT, the state police name search. If the line is already gone from that public search, you may not need a new application. If you think an automatic set-aside should have happened and it did not, the same AG page says to email Michigan State Police.

A marijuana conviction is not automatic just because the drug was marijuana. MSP's eligibility page makes you pass the ban list and the year count first. A pending criminal case stops automatic set-aside for now.

The compiled text used here is current through Public Act 103 of 2026 on the legislature site. Read the section that matches your charge. Do not borrow a rule from a different door.

Which charges count as a misdemeanor marihuana offense? #

The short application covers three state charges, plus a local ordinance that matches one of them. MCL 780.621e(7) defines a misdemeanor marihuana offense as a violation of section 7403(2)(d), section 7404(2)(d), or a marihuana paraphernalia violation of section 7453, or a local ordinance that substantially corresponds to one of those.

The court form says the same list in plainer labels. Form MC 227a, revised July 2024 by the State Court Administrative Office, names:

• MCL 333.7403(2)(d), possession.
• MCL 333.7404(2)(d), use.
• MCL 333.7453, selling marihuana paraphernalia.
• A local ordinance substantially corresponding to one of those.

On the books today, possession under 7403(2)(d) is a misdemeanor with a maximum of 1 year in jail or a fine of not more than $2,000, or both. Use under 7404(2)(d) is a misdemeanor with a maximum of 90 days or a fine of not more than $100, or both. Your old judgment controls what you were actually convicted of. The current penalty line is how you spot the section number. It is not a new sentence.

The statute's first sentence says that beginning January 1, 2020, a person convicted of one or more of these misdemeanors may apply to set them aside. The history line on the same page says 2020 PA 192 took effect April 11, 2021. The AG FAQ tells people there is no waiting period, and to file after April 11, 2021. October 2026 is past that date.

Other convictions on your record do not block this particular application. The AG says that in the marijuana FAQ. The same page says the number of these minor marijuana convictions is unlimited, if they were based on conduct that would not be a crime after December 6, 2018.

That date is the presumption. MCL 780.621e(4) says that when you file, the court starts with a rebuttable presumption. In plain words: the state assumes the old conduct would not be a crime if you did it on or after December 6, 2018. You do not have to prove that. The prosecutor has to knock the presumption down.

MCL 333.27955 is the adult-use yardstick for what a person 21 or older may possess. It allows 2.5 ounces or less, with not more than 15 grams of that in concentrate. At home, it allows up to 10 ounces, plus plants grown on the premises, with a cap of 12 plants. It also allows giving away up to 2.5 ounces to another adult 21 or older, with no pay, and with no public ad. If the old conduct sits outside those lines, the prosecutor has a fact to argue. The statute does not make you guess the argument in advance. It puts the proof on the prosecutor.

A sale for money is not on the 621e list. A delivery case charged under a different section is not on the 621e list. Those charges use a different door, or they do not qualify. Read the MCL citation on the judgment before you pick MC 227a.

How does the marijuana application move through court? #

You file MC 227a in the court that convicted you, you mail a copy to the prosecutor, and you do not send this packet to Michigan State Police. The AG FAQ says fingerprints are not required on this path, and you do not mail the marijuana application to the Attorney General either.

MCL 780.621e(2) says the application must have your full name, your current address, and a certified record of each conviction you want set aside. A copy must be served on the agency that prosecuted the case.

The MC 227a instructions add the clerk steps:

1. Confirm the charge is on the 621e list.
2. File in the court where the conviction happened. Use a separate application for each court.
3. Get the exact date and charge from the court. Attach a certified copy of each conviction. The form says there may be a fee for those copies. It does not print a dollar amount. Ask that clerk.
4. Sign and date the application. This instruction sheet does not tell you to sign in front of a notary.
5. Make three copies. Take them to the clerk. The form says there should be no filing fee for the application itself.
6. Mail a copy to the prosecuting official.
7. Fill out the certificate of mailing on the copies you still have. Get one of those back to the court. Keep one.

Then the clock in the statute runs.

What happens	Deadline in MCL 780.621e
Prosecutor may file an answer	No later than 60 days from the date of service
No answer filed	Court must enter the set-aside order within 21 days after that 60-day period, and serve you, the arresting agency, the prosecutor, and the state police
Prosecutor files an answer	Court sets a hearing no later than 30 days after it receives the answer
After that hearing	Court enters the order granting or denying within 14 days

At a hearing, the prosecutor must prove by a preponderance of the evidence that the conduct would still be a crime under Michigan law, or under a city or township ordinance, if it happened on or after December 6, 2018. MCL 780.621e(6) says you are not required to present evidence. The rules of evidence do not apply at that hearing.

The AG also says this application does not ask you to prove you have lived well since the case, and it does not ask you to prove the set-aside matches the public welfare. That public-welfare test lives on the general application, in MCL 780.621d(13). Do not mix the two forms.

If a court denied a marijuana misdemeanor application before April 11, 2021, the AG FAQ says the old request does not count. File a new one in the convicting court, and mail it to the prosecutor who handled the case.

If the court denies you now, MCL 780.621f(3) says an aggrieved party may ask that court for a rehearing, or appeal to the circuit court or the court of appeals under those courts' rules. This farm blog will not map your appeal. A lawyer should.

The court mails a granted order to Michigan State Police. MCL 780.621e(5) and the form instructions both say you are not the person who has to mail that order to MSP to make it effective.

Put these papers on the table before you go to the clerk. The list is the statute plus the July 2024 form instructions. It is not a new requirement I made up.

• The judgment, or whatever paper shows the charge code. You need the MCL number, the conviction date, and the case number.
• A certified copy of each conviction you want set aside. MC 227a says to get that from the clerk of the court that convicted you. The same sheet says there may be a fee. It does not print the price. Ask that window.
• Your current address. MCL 780.621e(2) requires it on the application, with your full name.
• One application per court. Two Detroit-area courts means two packets, even if both cases were possession.
• The prosecutor's mailing address from the judgment or from the clerk. The AG says that office can be a county prosecutor or a city attorney.
• Three copies of the application and the attachments, the way the form instructions describe.
• A pen. The marijuana form instructions say sign and date. They do not say notary.
• Stamps. The form's certificate of mailing is about first-class mail to the prosecutor's last-known address.
• No fingerprint card for this path. No $50 check to Michigan State Police. Those belong to form MC 227, the general application.
• A calendar note for day 60 after the prosecutor is served. If no answer is in the file, the court has 21 days after that to enter the order.

If the clerk's window in Detroit is the 36th District Court, that is because the conviction happened there, not because every city resident files in one building. Project Clean Slate names both the 36th District Court and the 3rd Circuit Court because those are the courts in its stipulated-order process. Bring the judgment either way. The city lawyers cannot set aside a case that was entered in a different county.

When the background email arrives before any of this is done, save it. The date on that report matters. MCL 780.623(6) shields a company that reported a conviction while it was still public. After the order, a new public search on ICHAT is the $10 check for what strangers can still see. The $30 fingerprint search is the one that can still show the nonpublic file. Do both if you need to know which kind of "hit" the warehouse used.

What does automatic Clean Slate clear without an application? #

Michigan State Police can set aside some old convictions with no form, after 7 years for a misdemeanor or 10 years for a felony, if the conviction is not on the ban list. MCL 780.621g says this no-application process begins two years after the effective date of the act that added the section. That act, 2020 PA 193, took effect April 11, 2021. The AG's Clean Slate page says MSP now runs a daily process. You do not go to court for the automatic path.

The AG's plain counts:

• Misdemeanors punishable by less than 93 days: unlimited number, eligible after 7 years.
• Misdemeanors punishable by 93 days or more: up to 4, eligible after 7 years.
• Felonies: up to 2, eligible after 10 years from sentencing or release from prison, whichever is later.

MCL 780.621g(5) matches that lifetime cap of 2 felonies and 4 misdemeanors in the state police database, and it says the misdemeanor cap does not apply to the shorter misdemeanors in subsections (1) and (3).

For the felony path and the 93-day-or-more misdemeanor path, subsection (6) adds three gates. The years have to have passed. There can be no criminal charge pending in the state police database. You cannot have picked up a new conviction in that database during the waiting period.

MSP's eligibility page says a conviction is not automatically set aside if it is any of these:

• An assaultive crime.
• A serious misdemeanor.
• A crime of dishonesty.
• An offense punishable by 10 or more years in prison.
• An offense whose elements involve a minor, a vulnerable adult, injury, serious impairment, or death.
• A human-trafficking violation.
• Operating while intoxicated.
• A commercial-vehicle traffic offense.
• A traffic offense that causes injury or death.

MCL 780.621c(2) says the ban on setting those convictions aside by application also applies to automatic set-aside under 621g. A pending case is its own stop. MSP says you are not eligible for automatic set-aside while a criminal case is still open. You might be later, after it closes and the years pass.

A marijuana misdemeanor that also fits the year count and the ban list can be cleared this way with no MC 227a. If it does not show as cleared on ICHAT, the application door is still there, and that door has no 7-year wait. Use the application when the automatic process has not moved the line.

The year count is arithmetic from the statute, not a vibe. Here is how to lay a date on the kitchen table. These are examples of the clock. They are not a promise about your docket.

• A use misdemeanor under MCL 333.7404(2)(d) is punishable by not more than 90 days. That is under 93 days. MCL 780.621g starts the 7 years at imposition of the sentence for that kind of misdemeanor. Sentence imposed March 1, 2018 means the 7 years landed March 1, 2025. October 2026 is after that date. A later conviction during those 7 years, or a pending case, can still block the automatic path for the subsections that say so.
• A possession misdemeanor under MCL 333.7403(2)(d) is punishable by not more than 1 year. That is 93 days or more. The AG's cap for that group is 4 set-asides, still after 7 years. The same March 2018 sentence date is the same 7-year math. The cap is the difference.
• A felony uses 10 years from sentence or from the end of the prison term, whichever is later. MCL 780.621g(2) says both events, and the later one controls. If the sentence was 2014 and the prison term ended in 2018, count 10 years from 2018. A marijuana felony does not get a shorter count because the drug is legal now. The short count with no wait is the misdemeanor application, and only for the charges on that list.
• Automatic set-aside did not exist on the day the statute was signed. It begins two years after April 11, 2021. A case that was already 10 years old in 2020 still had to wait for the system to turn on. The AG's 2026 page describes that system as a daily MSP process. If ICHAT still shows the line, the years being "enough" is not the same as the row being gone.

Ask the clerk four plain questions. Write the answers on the folder.

1. What is the MCL or ordinance number on the conviction?
2. What date was the sentence imposed, and if there was prison, what date did it end?
3. Which prosecutor's office handled it, and what is the mailing address?
4. The name of every court that entered a conviction, and the case number in each one.

If question 1 is 7403(2)(d), 7404(2)(d), or marihuana paraphernalia under 7453, you are on the MC 227a list. If it is a delivery statute, you are not. If it is a local Detroit ordinance, the form still allows it when the ordinance substantially corresponds to one of those three. "Substantially corresponding" is the statute's phrase. The clerk can show you the ordinance number. The clerk is not your lawyer.

The two clocks do not share a waiting room.

• Marijuana misdemeanor path: prosecutor has 60 days to answer. No answer, and the court has 21 days to enter the order. An answer, and the hearing is within 30 days, with the order inside 14 days after the hearing. That is MCL 780.621e. The AG says this path does not go to state police first.
• General application path: the AG FAQ says the whole process can take up to eight months. The Attorney General's response can take up to three months after the state police criminal history report is done. That wait belongs to MC 227, the fingerprint packet, and the $50 fee. Do not tell a friend with a simple possession case to sit for eight months before they file MC 227a.
• After a judge grants either kind of order, the AG says to ask Michigan State Police how long ICHAT takes to update. The phone number printed on that FAQ is 517-241-0606. The page does not print a number of days.
• While you wait on ICHAT, the $10 search is still the public check. A hit on a report dated before the order is the stale-copy problem in MCL 780.623(6), not proof the court denied you.

Automatic set-aside can also be put back. MCL 780.621g(12) says a no-application set-aside is subject to reinstatement under section 1h. This page does not restate section 1h. If a letter says the state put a case back on the record, read that section or ask a lawyer. Do not assume the automatic clearing is a forever stamp with no exception.

What if the case was a sale, a felony, or a driving offense? #

Those cases are not the MC 227a list. Selling marihuana paraphernalia can be on the list. Selling marijuana itself is a different charge. A felony delivery conviction has to be read under the general set-aside rules, and only if MCL 780.621c does not ban it.

The general application is the longer packet. MCL 780.621(1) says a person with not more than 3 felony offenses in this state may apply to set aside convictions from this state. An applicant may not have more than 2 assaultive-crime convictions set aside in a lifetime. An applicant may not have more than 1 felony conviction set aside under that section for the same offense if the offense is punishable by more than 10 years.

The AG restates the application caps this way: up to 3 felonies in a lifetime, unlimited misdemeanors, no more than 2 assaultive crimes, and only one felony punishable by 10 or more years. Some traffic convictions can be set aside, and they stay on the driving record.

Waiting periods for this general application come from MCL 780.621d:

Application	Earliest you may file
More than one felony	7 or more years after the last of these: sentence, felony probation, parole discharge, or imprisonment, for the convictions you want set aside
One felony, one or more serious misdemeanors, or one first-violation operating-while-intoxicated offense	5 or more years after the last of sentence, probation, parole, or imprisonment
Other misdemeanors, aside from a serious misdemeanor, a first OWI, or an assaultive misdemeanor	3 or more years after the last of sentence, imprisonment, or probation

The court cannot enter the order unless that time has passed, no criminal charges are pending, and you were not convicted of a criminal offense during the wait. If the court denies the petition, you cannot file again on the same conviction for 3 years, unless the denial order sets an earlier date.

This packet is the one with the fee and the fingerprints. MCL 780.621d(8) and (9) say you submit a copy of the application and one complete set of fingerprints to the department of state police, with a fee of $50.00 payable to the State of Michigan. State police compare the prints with their records, including the nonpublic set-aside file, and forward a set to the FBI. The court waits for that report. The AG's how-to says the same $50 processing fee, and it prints the Lansing mail stops: Michigan State Police, Criminal Justice Information Center, P.O. Box 30266, Lansing, Michigan 48909, and the Attorney General's expungement unit, P.O. Box 30217, Lansing, MI 48909. You also mail the prosecutor.

The judge on this path has a second test the marijuana form does not have. MCL 780.621d(13) says the court may set the conviction aside if your circumstances and behavior from the conviction to the filing warrant it, and if setting it aside is consistent with the public welfare. MCL 780.621d(14) says a set-aside under this act is a privilege and conditional. It is not a right.

Driving cases have their own ban. MCL 780.621c(1)(d) blocks a set-aside for operating while intoxicated, for a commercial-vehicle traffic offense, and for a traffic offense that causes injury or death. The OWI ban has one exception. A first-violation OWI can be applied for, once, under subsection (3). That first OWI is not eligible for automatic set-aside. MCL 780.621c(5) says an order setting aside a traffic conviction must not require the Secretary of State to remove it from the driving record.

So a driving-under-the-influence case is not a 621e marijuana misdemeanor just because cannabis was the substance. Look at the charge code. If it is OWI, use the OWI rules. The AG says you may apply to remove one first-time OWI if it did not involve injury or death and at least 5 years have passed. The driving record can still show it.

Life-maximum felonies, and the sex offenses and child-abuse offenses named in MCL 780.621c(1), cannot be set aside by application or by the automatic process. Those are not marijuana-possession cases. They are on this page so a mixed record does not get waved through.

What still shows up when you apply for a job? #

The public line should come off. A nonpublic file stays with Michigan State Police, and an old printout from before the order can still sit in a hiring folder. MCL 780.622(1) says that once the order is entered, or once an automatic set-aside happens, you are considered not to have been previously convicted, except as that section and section 3 provide.

The Attorney General puts the same idea in shorter words. An expungement removes a conviction from public view. Most employers, landlords, and background checks will not see it. Law enforcement and some licensing agencies may still access it.

That is the job-form answer for an ordinary private employer. It is not a promise about every form. If the question asks about expunged cases by name, read the question. If the job is with a police department or the Department of Corrections, the nonpublic file can be opened. MCL 780.623(2)(e) allows the nonpublic record to be considered when a person whose conviction was set aside applies for employment with the department of corrections or a law enforcement agency.

What the nonpublic file is: MCL 780.623(2) orders state police to keep a nonpublic record of the set-aside order, or of the notice that a conviction was set aside automatically, plus the arrest, fingerprints, conviction, and sentence. MCL 780.621f(1) says the same for a granted marijuana application. The arresting agency keeps that nonpublic record too.

Who else can see it, under 780.623(2):

• A court, or a judicial-branch agency, for a licensing decision.
• To show that someone filing a new set-aside application already had one granted.
• A court, when setting a sentence for a later offense punishable as a felony or by more than 1 year.
• The governor, if you later apply for a pardon on a different offense.
• A court, police, a prosecutor, or the attorney general, for charging, plea offers, and sentencing.
• The sex-offender registry uses listed in that subsection. A marijuana possession case is not that list. The exception is still in the statute.

The nonpublic record is exempt from the Freedom of Information Act. You can get a copy of your own nonpublic record by paying a fee the state police set the way FOIA fees are set in MCL 15.234. Section 3 does not print a dollar amount for that copy.

The practical search prices are on the MSP "what remains" page:

Check	What MSP says you get	Price on that page
ICHAT	Publicly available criminal history. Name search	$10.00 per search
Fingerprint personal-record search	Public and nonpublic information tied to the prints you submit	$30.00 processing fee
Court of conviction	Whatever that court still keeps	Ask the clerk. Not priced on the MSP page

A commercial background company is a separate problem. MCL 780.623(6) says an entity is not liable for reporting a public record of a conviction that was set aside, if that record was available as a public record on the date of the report. So a report pulled before the order, or a database that copied the public line and did not update, can still land in a hiring email. The statute gives that reporter a shield. It does not give you a button that deletes their server.

Someone who knows a conviction was set aside, and who is not you and not a victim, and who divulges, uses, or publishes it outside the allowed list, commits a misdemeanor. MCL 780.623(5) sets that at imprisonment for not more than 90 days, or a fine of not more than $500, or both.

MCL 780.622(8) says a set-aside conviction, and records of a collateral action, cannot be used as evidence in a negligent-hiring, admission, or licensure lawsuit. That is a lawsuit rule. It is not a promise that a licensing board never sees the nonpublic file. The AG already said some licensing agencies may still access an expunged conviction.

LARA's professional-licensing page is a different cleanup. If a professional-license punishment was based on a conviction that has now been set aside, you can email BPL-Monitoring@michigan.gov with your name, license number, disciplinary case number if you know it, and proof of the set-aside. LARA says a final order based only on the conviction can be fully expunged from the discipline history. An order based on the conviction and on other violations gets a partial expungement. The conviction reference comes off. The other violations stay. An order that was never about a conviction is not eligible. That page is about LARA licenses such as health and trades boards. It is not a Cannabis Regulatory Agency rule. The sources for this post do not include a CRA bulletin that says whether a state cannabis license application can see a set-aside marijuana conviction. Ask the agency or a lawyer before you treat the public-record rule as a license answer.

Two more limits matter if you are hoping the old case unravels everything around it.

You do not get the money back. MCL 780.622(2) says you are not entitled to remission of any fine, costs, or other money paid because of a conviction that is set aside. MCL 780.621f(4) adds that a marijuana set-aside does not return fines, costs, fees, or money or property that was forfeited.

You do not get a new sentence in a different case. MCL 780.621f(2) says that if the marijuana conviction is set aside, you may not seek resentencing in another case where that conviction was used to pick the sentence. That stays true even if dropping the conviction would have changed the guideline score.

Restitution still has to be paid. MCL 780.622(7) says the act does not relieve restitution, and the convicting court keeps power to enforce that order. A victim can still bring a civil case for damages. You also cannot sue for damages for the time you already served, under subsection (6).

Police and prosecutors can still count the set-aside case as a prior conviction when they charge a second or later offense, and for sentencing under MCL 769.10, 769.11, and 769.12. That is MCL 780.622(9). The public job check and the next criminal case are not the same audience.

What is a set-aside, what is a pardon, and what does not get erased? #

A set-aside is a court order under the Clean Slate statutes. A pardon is a governor's act under the Michigan Constitution. Neither one deletes every database.

Article V, Section 14 of the 1963 Michigan Constitution says the governor has power to grant reprieves, commutations, and pardons after convictions for all offenses, except cases of impeachment, on the conditions and limitations he directs, subject to procedures and regulations prescribed by law. He has to inform the legislature each year of each one, and state the reasons.

That section does not say a pardon removes the case from a court file, from Michigan State Police, from ICHAT, or from a federal record. It grants clemency after a conviction. The conviction is the starting point of the sentence.

The set-aside effects live in a different law. MCL 780.622 applies when an order is entered under section 1 or section 1e, or when a conviction is set aside automatically under section 1g. MCL 780.623 tells the court to send a copy of an order under section 1 or 1e to the arresting agency and the state police, and it tells state police to keep the nonpublic record. A pardon is not an order under those sections. The constitution's pardon sentence does not trigger those paragraphs.

Question	Set-aside (expungement / Clean Slate)	Pardon	"Gone from every database"
Who does it	Convicting court, or MSP on the automatic path	Governor, under Const. 1963, art. V, § 14	No Michigan page used here describes this result
Public criminal history	AG: removed from public view. Most employers, landlords, and background checks will not see it	Constitution does not say the public line is deleted	Still no
Nonpublic MSP file	Kept, for the uses in MCL 780.623	Not created by the pardon clause	The nonpublic file is the opposite of gone
Treated as not previously convicted	Yes, under MCL 780.622(1), with the exceptions in that section and section 3	The set-aside statute does not attach that sentence to a pardon	No
Fines already paid	Not refunded	Constitution does not promise a refund	No
Old background-company copy	Can still be reported if it was public on the report date	Same practical risk if the line was public	That copy is the email you already got

What a pardon does not erase, from the text in front of us:

• It does not, by itself, enter a set-aside order.
• It does not, by itself, make MCL 780.622 treat you as not previously convicted.
• It does not, by itself, start the nonpublic-record rules, and it also does not wipe the files those rules keep after a set-aside.
• It does not say federal records, another state's records, or a private database have to delete the case.
• It does not refund money. The set-aside law is the one that speaks to fines, and it says they are not given back. Do not read the pardon clause as a refund either. It never says that.

Law enforcement can still use a set-aside conviction inside the jobs and charging lanes listed above. A pardon does not close those lanes by magic, because the pardon clause never mentions them. If you need clemency because the charge is not eligible for a set-aside, that is a separate ask to the governor under the procedures state law sets. This page is the statute you can file. It is not a pardon application.

The fantasy version is the third column. People say "expunged" and picture a shredder in every office that ever touched the file. Michigan's own pages describe a narrower result. Public view comes off. The nonpublic record stays. The $30 fingerprint search is how MSP says you can see both. The $10 ICHAT search is how you see the public side.

Where does a Detroit applicant file? #

In the court that entered the conviction. One application per court. Detroit residents can get free help from Project Clean Slate. MC 227a says you must file where the conviction occurred, and you must use a separate application for each court. A case in one district court and a case in another court are two filings. The AG FAQ says the same thing. You cannot dump every Michigan case on one clerk.

The City of Detroit runs Project Clean Slate for residents. The city page calls it free expungement for Detroit residents, and it says the program gives free legal services to Detroiters seeking expungement. The page also names a stipulated-order process with the 3rd Circuit Court and the 36th District Court. Those are the courts the city lists. Your judgment still tells you which clerk gets the paper. If the conviction was not in one of those courts, PCS does not move the file to Detroit.

The same city page headlines 10 years of the program and a 20,000th expunged conviction, with Mayor Sheffield. That number is expunged convictions through the city program. The page does not say all 20,000 were marijuana cases. Do not quote it that way at the kitchen table.

For the marijuana misdemeanor path, the prosecutor who gets the mailed copy is the office that prosecuted that case. The AG says that can be a county prosecutor or a city attorney. Look at the judgment. Do not assume every Detroit case goes to the same office.

Out-of-state residents can still apply on a Michigan conviction. The AG says yes. Fingerprints for the general application, if you live out of state, are a state-police question. The marijuana misdemeanor path does not use that fingerprint packet.

A lease is a different Detroit paper. Where you can smoke in a rental is covered in Detroit rental and neighbor rules. A set-aside does not rewrite a no-smoking clause. A no-smoking clause does not set aside a conviction.

FAQ #

A set-aside can pull a qualifying conviction off the public record. It does not shred every database, and a pardon does not do that job for you.

Is a Michigan set-aside the same thing as expungement? #

Yes. The Attorney General says Clean Slate, set-aside, and expungement mean the same thing. All three names point at removing a conviction from the public record under Act 213 of 1965. They do not mean a pardon, and they do not mean every copy of the case is destroyed.

Is there a waiting period for a minor marijuana set-aside? #

No. The AG says there is no waiting period. You file after April 11, 2021, which is the effective date of the section. The statute's own first sentence uses a beginning date of January 1, 2020. The operational answer on the AG FAQ is the one to follow: no wait, and a denial from before April 11, 2021 means you file again. The 3-year, 5-year, and 7-year waits belong to the general application in MCL 780.621d.

Do I pay Michigan State Police $50 for a marijuana misdemeanor application? #

No. That $50 fee is for the general application, not for MC 227a. MCL 780.621d(9) sets $50.00 on the fingerprint packet. The AG FAQ says the minor-marijuana application is not mailed to state police and does not need fingerprints. MC 227a says there should be no filing fee for the application. Certified copies from the clerk may cost something. The form does not print that price.

Can I set aside every marijuana conviction I have? #

You can set aside an unlimited number of qualifying minor marijuana convictions, if the conduct would not be a crime after December 6, 2018. That is the AG FAQ, tied to MCL 780.621e. A sale, a delivery felony, or an OWI is not on that list. Other, non-marijuana convictions do not block the minor-marijuana application. They still sit on the record until they have their own path.

Will the case disappear from every database? #

No. Public view should drop. Michigan State Police keeps a nonpublic record. MCL 780.623 requires that file, and it lists who may see it. ICHAT is the $10 public search. The $30 fingerprint search returns public and nonpublic information. A background company that copied the line while it was still public can still report it.

Can an employer or a landlord still see it? #

Most of them should not, once it is off the public record. The AG says most employers, landlords, and background checks will not see it. Law enforcement hiring and Department of Corrections hiring can look at the nonpublic record under MCL 780.623(2)(e). Some licensing agencies may still access it. A stale commercial report can still name the case.

Does a pardon do the same thing as a set-aside? #

No. A pardon is the governor's power in Article V, Section 14. A set-aside is the court process in MCL 780.621 and the sections after it. The pardon clause does not say the conviction is deleted. The "considered not to have been previously convicted" sentence is in MCL 780.622, and it runs when a set-aside order is entered or when automatic Clean Slate sets the case aside.

What if the prosecutor objects? #

The court sets a hearing, and the prosecutor has to prove the conduct would still be a crime. MCL 780.621e(6) gives the prosecutor the burden, by a preponderance of the evidence, and says you do not have to present evidence. The hearing is no later than 30 days after the court receives the answer. The order comes within 14 days after the hearing. If the prosecutor does not answer within 60 days, the court must enter the set-aside within 21 days.

Can I get my fines or my property back? #

No. MCL 780.622(2) bars remission of fines, costs, or other money paid. MCL 780.621f(4) also bars return of forfeited money or property on a marijuana set-aside. Restitution, if you owe it, continues.

What if my cases are in different courts? #

File a separate application in each convicting court. The MC 227a instructions say that in item 2. The AG says you cannot file every conviction in one court. Each packet still needs its own certified record and its own mailing to the prosecutor who handled that case.

Does automatic Clean Slate cover a marijuana felony? #

Only if that felony meets the general automatic rules. Marijuana does not get its own felony shortcut. MCL 780.621g allows up to 2 felony set-asides with no application, 10 years after sentence or release, whichever is later, and only if the felony is not on the ban list. A pending case blocks it. More than one assaultive conviction blocks the felony automatic path. If the felony is a delivery case that is not eligible, the general application and its 5-year or 7-year wait are the other door, and only when 621c does not forbid the set-aside.

Where can a Detroit resident get free help? #

Project Clean Slate, through the City of Detroit, for city residents. The city page says the help is free, and it names a process with the 3rd Circuit Court and the 36th District Court. The page's 20,000th-conviction mark is the program's count, not a marijuana-only count. You still file in the court that convicted you.

What this does not change about a legal jar #

Buying legal flower in 2026 does not edit a conviction the court already entered. A set-aside is the court path. A pardon is the governor's path. The ounce limits are a third piece of paper.

MCL 333.27955 still lets a person 21 or older possess 2.5 ounces or less, with not more than 15 grams in concentrate, and up to 10 ounces at home inside the plant rules. That is current law. It is not a pardon, and it is not a set-aside. If you are under 21, that section does not describe your possession.

Divine Toke is a Detroit-area Michigan farm. I grow the flower. We sell sun-grown flower and 1 gram pre-rolls to adults. Buying a legal jar does not clear a 2014 case. Clearing a 2014 case does not change a workplace drug test. Those are three different papers.

If the judgment in the folder does not match 7403(2)(d), 7404(2)(d), or a marihuana paraphernalia charge under 7453, do not force it onto MC 227a. Use the general rules, or get help. Detroit residents have Project Clean Slate. Everyone else can start with the Attorney General's expungement page and the MSP eligibility check.

Keep the folder after you file.

• Keep the certified copies. A second court needs its own certified copies. A photocopy of the first packet is not what MC 227a asks you to attach.
• Keep the certificate of mailing. The 60 days run from service. The date you wrote on that certificate is the date you can point to.
• Keep the background email that started this. The date on it tells you whether the company copied a line that was still public.
• When the order arrives, read the charge codes on it before you celebrate. The order should match the cases you asked to set aside. If a case number is missing, that case is still in the other court.

This article is general information from those public pages. It is not legal advice. It is not a filing. If a prosecutor answers your application, show up.