Pashae Johnson found her courage to change her life not in one exciting moment, but in the mundane and routine.

“I had my laptop in this chair … bingeing myself to death on a weekend, unless I had to work,” she recalled, standing in a bedroom just big enough for a dresser, twin bed and west-facing window. Johnson is a bright and soft-spoken woman, but you get the feeling she will accomplish whatever she’s determined to do.

“I learned that about myself,” she said. “I’m a homebody. I like to focus on what I need to do.”

Mary Hall/WBEZ

Johnson recently moved out of this room at Grace House, the women’s home of St. Leonard’s Ministries on the Near West Side. For more than 70 years, the organization has housed and educated people leaving prison. It’s also the one of dozens of nonprofits to receive funding from the sales tax revenue of recreational marijuana.

In 2020, when Illinois lawmakers legalized pot, they made a lot of lofty promises: to help repair the harms of the drug war, pour money into disinvested communities and even make a dent in state debt.

“We will never be able to fully remedy the depth of the damage that’s been done, but today, here in Illinois, we can govern with the courage to right the wrongs of the past,” Gov. JB Pritzker said at the time.

Manuel Martinez/WBEZ

Last year, Illinois saw more than $2 billion in sales and almost half a billion in sales tax. Lawmakers still boast about two big successes: automatic expungement of minor cannabis offenses and a flood of resources into communities “harmed by violence, excessive incarceration, and economic disinvestment.”

But a closer look shows the results are mixed. At the five-year anniversary of recreational marijuana legalization, we’re examining whether lawmakers have fulfilled these commitments — and what experts say is still needed.

Flexible funding

Since 2020, Illinois has given $338 million in what’s called R3 funding to organizations investing in communities impacted by the war on drugs. Nonprofits which have benefited say the funding has had a huge effect on the quality of their service.

“Without it, we could not provide nearly the level of support and services that are very much needed by our participants,” said Zack Schrantz, executive director of St. Leonard’s. He says R3 money makes up about 15% of their funding, which allows them to offer longer-term and more comprehensive services than other reentry programs.

“What is good is the flexibility with it,” he said. “For us to say, ‘We have the experience. We have the history. This is what our men and women can best benefit from.’ … We’re able to target it toward what we know we need.”

What Pashae Johnson most needed was the time and space to mentally recover from her time in prison and past drug use. She says that time helped her find her career today as a caseworker at another nonprofit.

“Not being in a rush to have to leave but still gaining those skills that you need to succeed,” she said. “It’s a safe reentry, where you don’t have to worry about the pressing issues of nothing but focusing on you.”

Mary Hall/WBEZ

Recipients say one of its main benefits is how the R3 funding is structured: Many different types of organizations are able to apply. Take the Youth Civic Light Opera of Chicago, which teaches teens to manage stress, anxiety and other mental health issues through theater. The Cannabis Equity IL Coalition started a legal aid hotline to help people get criminal records expunged. The Illinois Alliance for Reentry & Justice plans to create a court-watching program, the first ever led by people impacted by the criminal justice system.

But one of R3 funding’s biggest drawbacks: In order to give it out, the state has to earn marijuana revenue. Recent history has shown most states have an initial windfall that recedes over time as neighboring states legalize too. Add in our higher-than-average taxes, and instead of people from other states coming here to buy pot, more Illinoians will cross the border and buy it there.

“I don’t think that marijuana is physically addictive in the same way that a lot of drugs are, but the money might be,” said Sam Kamin, who has spent 15 years studying marijuana policy. “Almost everyone is disappointed by the revenue from marijuana in almost all the places where it’s been legalized.”

“All types of hoops”

Vincent Bolton was never convicted or even charged for possessing less than 10 grams of cannabis — but the records followed him around for about 20 years. The arrest records came up when he needed background checks.

“Man, it was very hard,” he said. “Networking, getting jobs and housing … a lot of people back off or feel like you ain’t worthy of that opportunity.”

The opportunity for a clean slate came in 2020, when the state created a path for minor cannabis records to be expunged. Yet while lawmakers boasted about how many records were automatically cleared — to the tune of 800,000 — advocates say that didn’t go far enough.

“The idea that we’re even expunging these records is also false, because we’re doing 25% of all the clearing that needs to be done,” said Peter Contos, deputy director at the Cannabis Equity IL Coalition. That’s because automatic expungements only apply to the State Police record — not any other.

Manuel Martinez/WBEZ

“When you get arrested, your record lives with … the Chicago police, Cook County courts, state police and the FBI,” Contos said. “If I got stopped tomorrow, the state police report is not going to pop up when I get stopped, but it’s still on the CPD’s radar, it’s still on the court radar, still on the FBI radar.”

That technicality kept Bolton from automatic expungement — his records lived with the courts. So, even though he was never charged with a crime, he still had to apply for expungement. That process is complicated, windy and slow-moving. During that time, people lose out on a lot of public assistance.

“You can’t get financial aid. You can’t get an apartment or a home in your name — all the things you need to thrive. Because you’re a felon, you’re not going to get a good-paying job,” said Douglas Kelly, executive director of the Cannabis Equity IL Coalition.

Because of the hurdles, the coalition began the “Clean Your Record” program, which offers legal aid, education and other services for people with cannabis charges on their records. They helped Bolton finally get his record expunged. They paid for his ride to and from the police station, where he got his fingerprints. They also set him up with an attorney to comb through his records.

“It’s like an endless maze,” Bolton said. “They put you through all these types of hoops. … It’s too complicated.”

Courtesy of Vincent Bolton.

WBEZ reached out to the state of Illinois. In a written statement, they acknowledged the challenges of coordinating record expungement across many state agencies, saying: “We have 102 counties with 102 different ways of collecting and reporting data. … As expungements are permanent and cannot be undone, the State of Illinois must be 100% accurate and correct when processing those requests.”

Still, the statement called Illinois a “gold standard,” citing 2024 reporting from The Associated Press showing Illinois has expunged the most records of any state in the U.S.

In January, Bolton finally got his cannabis records expunged. He says it has changed how he moves in the world — although he wishes it had happened sooner.

“It definitely will give me more confidence walking into the room, knowing that I’m on the same playing field as everybody else,” he said. “I just feel reenergized and remotivated to get back out here, take back my legacy.”

Mary Hall is Curious City’s digital producer. Erin Allen is Curious City’s host.