Many advocates are still hopeful the Legislature can push through full legalization in the future.

[About 160,000 people in New York will see their marijuana convictions disappear.]

A lower penalty

Under the new law, possessing between one and two ounces of marijuana will no longer be considered a Class B misdemeanor.

It will now be a violation, with fines up to $200. Those found with less than an ounce of marijuana will now face a $50 fine, compared with $150 previously.

Sealing the records will keep low-level marijuana-related criminal convictions from appearing in most background searches, state officials said.

Numbers and impact

About 160,000 people will have marijuana convictions cleared from their records in New York, said a spokeswoman for the State Division of Criminal Justice Services. Of those people, 10,872 in New York City and 13,537 in the rest of the state will no longer have criminal records in the state because they don’t have any other convictions.

Advocates of criminal justice reform have embraced the move, as studies have shown that the criminalization of marijuana has a disproportionate impact on blacks and Hispanics.

Kassandra Frederique, the New York State director of the Drug Policy Alliance, a nonprofit group, said that the law was a “great step forward” but that only full marijuana legalization would give relief to thousands of New Yorkers who had faced other drug-related charges.