Oklahoma Marijuana Record Expungement: What the Law Says

There is no marijuana-only category

Section 18 of Title 22 of the Oklahoma Statutes does not name marijuana. It does not name any single drug.

The section is written in general words: misdemeanor, nonviolent felony, dismissed charge, deferred judgment, and reclassified offense.

So a marijuana arrest, charge, or conviction is treated the same way as any other case with the same outcome. What matters under the statute is the outcome of the case — for example, whether it was dismissed, deferred, or ended in a conviction — and the waiting times and other conditions the statute sets.

What “expungement” means in the statute

Section 18, subsection B, defines the word. “Expungement” means the sealing of criminal records, as well as any public civil record, involving actions brought by and against the State of Oklahoma arising from the same arrest, transaction, or occurrence.

The statute then uses two levels of sealing:

• Fully sealed: the record is not available to the public or to law enforcement. It may be kept in the state criminal history repository, where only designated employees of the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation (OSBI) may see it, for research and statistical purposes.
• Partially sealed: the record is not available to the public, but it stays available to law enforcement agencies for law enforcement purposes.

Expungement under this statute is sealing. Section 19, the procedure section, says nothing in that section authorizes the physical destruction of any criminal justice records. It also says a record ordered sealed, if it is not unsealed within ten (10) years of the expungement order, may be obliterated or destroyed at the end of that ten-year period.

Who may ask the court: the 16 categories

Section 18, subsection A, says a person authorized to file a motion for expungement must be within one of the following categories. They are stated here in plain words, in the statute’s own order. Many categories also require that no felony or misdemeanor charges are pending.

Cases with no conviction:

• 1. The person has been acquitted.
• 2. The conviction was reversed with instructions to dismiss by an appellate court, or an appellate court reversed the conviction and the prosecuting agency then dismissed the charge.
• 3. The person’s factual innocence was established by DNA evidence after conviction, including a person released from prison when innocence was established.
• 4. The person has received a full pardon by the Governor for the crime for which the person was sentenced.
• 5. The person was arrested and no charges of any type were filed, and the statute of limitations has expired or the prosecuting agency declined to file charges.
• 6. The person was under eighteen (18) years of age when the offense was committed and has received a full pardon for the offense.
• 7. The person was charged with one or more misdemeanor or felony crimes, all charges were dismissed, the person has never been convicted of a felony, and the time limit for refiling has expired or the prosecuting agency confirms the charges will not be refiled. This category does not apply to charges dismissed after a deferred judgment or delayed sentence.

Charges dismissed after a deferred judgment or delayed sentence:

• 8. A misdemeanor charge, dismissed after the person successfully completed a deferred judgment or delayed sentence; the person has never been convicted of a felony, and at least one (1) year has passed since the charge was dismissed.
• 9. A nonviolent felony offense not listed in Section 571 of Title 57, dismissed after successful completion of a deferred judgment or delayed sentence; the person has never been convicted of a felony, and at least five (5) years have passed since the charge was dismissed.
• 14. Not more than two felony offenses, with the charges dismissed after successful completion of a deferred judgment or delayed sentence; none of the offenses is listed in Section 13.1 of Title 21 and none would require registration under the Sex Offenders Registration Act; and at least ten (10) years have passed since the charges were dismissed.

Convictions:

• 10. A misdemeanor conviction where the person was sentenced to a fine of less than Five Hundred One Dollars ($501.00) without imprisonment or a suspended sentence, the fine has been paid or satisfied by time served, and the person has not been convicted of a felony.
• 11. A misdemeanor conviction where the person was sentenced to imprisonment, a suspended sentence, or a fine greater than Five Hundred Dollars ($500.00); the person has not been convicted of a felony, and at least five (5) years have passed since the end of the last misdemeanor sentence.
• 12. One nonviolent felony conviction for an offense not listed in Section 571 of Title 57; the person has not been convicted of any other felony, has not been convicted of a separate misdemeanor in the last seven (7) years, and at least five (5) years have passed since completion of the sentence.
• 13. Not more than two felony convictions, none of which is listed in Section 13.1 of Title 21 and none of which would require registration under the Sex Offenders Registration Act, and at least ten (10) years have passed since completion of the sentence.
• 16. A nonviolent felony conviction for an offense not listed in Section 571 of Title 57 that was later reclassified as a misdemeanor under Oklahoma law. The person is not currently serving a sentence in this state or another state, at least thirty (30) days have passed since completion or commutation of the sentence, any court-ordered restitution has been satisfied in full, and any court-ordered treatment program has been successfully completed. The statute says persons seeking expungement under this category may use the expungement forms provided in Section 18a of Title 22.

Identity theft:

• 15. The person was charged or arrested, or is the subject of an arrest warrant, for a crime committed by another person who used the person’s name or other identification without consent or authorization.

For categories 10, 11, 12, and 13, the statute says offenses arising out of the same transaction or occurrence are treated as one conviction and offense.

Which sealing level applies

Section 18 states the sealing level by category:

• Records expunged under categories 4, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, and 16 are partially sealed: closed to the public, but available to law enforcement for law enforcement purposes.
• Records expunged under categories 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, and 7 are sealed and not available to the public or to law enforcement, except that the OSBI Statistical Analysis Center may use them for research purposes.
• Records expunged under categories 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, and 14 may be used in a later criminal prosecution to prove a prior conviction or prior deferred judgment, without a court order unsealing the records.
• Records expunged under categories 4, 6, 12, and 13 may also include the sealing of Pardon and Parole Board records related to an application for a pardon; those records are sealed to the public but not to the Pardon and Parole Board.

The court process, as Section 19 states it

Section 19 of Title 22 sets the procedure:

• A person qualified under Section 18 may petition the district court of the district in which the arrest information pertaining to the person is located, for the sealing of all or any part of the record, including court records, except basic identification information.
• If a petitioner asks for expungement of multiple offenses in one county, and each would qualify if processed one after another, the expungements may be considered under a single petition.
• When a petition is filed, the court sets a hearing date and gives thirty (30) days of notice to the prosecuting agency, the arresting agency, the OSBI, and any other person or agency the court has reason to believe may have relevant information.
• The court may order the records sealed if it finds that the harm to the person’s privacy, or the dangers of unwarranted adverse consequences, outweigh the public interest in keeping the records. If the court finds that neither sealing nor keeping the records unsealed would serve the ends of justice, it may enter an order limiting access instead.
• An order must name the agencies it applies to. The petitioner, the prosecuting agency, the arresting agency, or the OSBI may appeal an order to the Supreme Court, and the OSBI is a necessary party in such an appeal and must be given notice.

The OSBI’s expungement page adds what the Bureau needs when a petition or order reaches it: the person’s name, social security number, date of birth, the crimes charged, the date of arrest, and the disposition — the end result — of the arrest and charges in court.

What a sealing order does, as Section 19 states it

• Once an order to seal is entered, the official actions covered by the order are deemed never to have occurred. The person and all criminal justice agencies may properly reply to any inquiry that no such action ever occurred and that no such record exists.
• Inspection of sealed records after the order is allowed only by court permission, on petition by the person the records are about, the Attorney General, or the prosecuting agency, and only for the persons and purposes named in the petition.
• Employers, educational institutions, and state and local government agencies, officials, and employees may not require an applicant to disclose information in sealed records. An applicant need not provide sealed information when answering questions about arrest and criminal records, and may state that no such action has ever occurred. An application may not be denied solely because the applicant refused to disclose sealed information. Section 19 states one exception: this rule does not apply to an application to the OSBI for a handgun license under Section 1290.18 of Title 21.
• Sealed records can later be unsealed. The prosecuting agency, the arresting agency, the OSBI, or another interested person or agency may petition the court, with thirty (30) days of notice and a hearing. The court may unseal all or part of the records if it finds a change of conditions or a compelling reason.
• An offense that has been expunged is not treated as a prior offense when deciding whether another offense qualifies for expungement under Section 18.

Section 19 also states two special rules about fees and timing. If a person qualifies under category 3 — DNA evidence established innocence — and the petition is granted, the court must order reimbursement of all filing fees and court costs the petitioner paid to file the request. A person who qualifies under category 3 or 4 may also ask for a hearing within thirty (30) days after filing, and the court must grant that request with at least ten (10) days of notice. The sections read for this page do not print a general fee amount for filing an expungement petition, so this page prints none.

Clean Slate: sealing without a court petition

Oklahoma law also provides a second path that does not start with a court petition.

The OSBI explains that House Bill 3316, passed in 2022, changed Sections 18 and 19 to create a state-initiated expungement process known as “Clean Slate.” Under it, a person with an eligible record can have the record sealed without filing a court petition. A 2026 law, Senate Bill 2030, then set out the current definitions and steps, in new Sections 18b and 19d of Title 22, effective July 1, 2026.

Section 18b defines a “clean slate eligible record” as a record arising on or after January 1, 1980, where each offense in the record meets one of these tests stated in the section:

• Records described in categories 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, or 15 of Section 18.
• Records described in category 5 of Section 18, where the prosecuting agency declined to file charges and the record is an Oklahoma single-source record.
• Records described in categories 7 or 8 of Section 18, where the record is an Oklahoma single-source record.
• The person was convicted of a felony offense under paragraph 1 of subsection A of Section 2-402 of Title 63 — the paragraph that makes it unlawful to knowingly or intentionally possess a controlled dangerous substance — the person is not currently serving a sentence, at least five (5) years have passed since the end of the last felony or misdemeanor sentence, and the record is a single-source record.
• The person was convicted of a misdemeanor offense, has not been convicted of a felony, has no charges pending, five (5) years have passed since the end of the last misdemeanor sentence, and the record is a single-source record.

A “single-source record,” as Section 18b defines it, is a criminal history record that consists of an Oklahoma arrest record only. It must not contain an arrest from another state, a federal arrest, or an entry in the National Sex Offender Registry or a National Crime Information Center (NCIC) wanted or warrant entry.

Section 18b says that, beginning on the act’s effective date and subject to the availability of funds, individuals with clean slate eligible records are eligible to have their records sealed without filing a court petition. Records expunged under Section 18b are partially sealed: closed to the public, but available to law enforcement for law enforcement purposes, and usable in a later prosecution as the section states.

The OSBI describes the Clean Slate steps this way: every month, the OSBI identifies eligible records and provides a list to the prosecuting agency and the arresting agency. The OSBI, the arresting agency, and the prosecuting agency have forty-five (45) days to review the records and note whether there is an objection. The OSBI then provides the list of records reviewed by all three with no objections to the appropriate court. Each court reviews the list and returns an expungement order if it agrees the record qualifies.

Section 19d adds two dated duties for the OSBI. By November 1, 2026, the OSBI must establish and maintain a public online portal where individuals can submit an expedited expungement request for clean slate eligible records, and for records eligible under category 16 of Section 18. And on or before November 1, 2027, the OSBI must begin the automatic process of identifying and submitting clean slate eligible records for sealing without a request, with all eligible electronic records to be identified and expunged through that process before November 1, 2029. Nothing in Section 19d stops a person from filing a court petition under Section 19 instead.

The OSBI’s expungement page gives this contact for more information: expungements@osbi.ok.gov or 405-879-2641.

The bottom line

Oklahoma expungement law is one general law, not a marijuana law. Section 18 of Title 22 lists who may ask a court to seal a record, and a marijuana case fits only through the general categories — an acquittal, a dismissal, a completed deferred case, a misdemeanor or nonviolent felony conviction after the stated wait, or a felony later reclassified as a misdemeanor.

Expungement means sealing, not erasing on the spot. Some records are fully sealed and some are only partially sealed, as the statute states. The court — not this page — decides any real case.