Category: Criminal Justice
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Virginia: Push To Decriminalize Psychedelics Falters, But Still Alive
A bill seeking to decriminalize possession of plant-based psychedelics in Virginia hit a snag this week in the House of Delegates, though counterpart legislation in the Senate remains alive and is headed for a committee vote next week. SB 262, co-sponsored by state Sens. Ghazala Hashmi (D-Chesterfield) and Jennifer Boysko (D-Herndon), and HB 898, from…
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Virginia House Committee Shelves Bill To ‘Defelonize’ Drug Possession
Lawmakers in Virginia’s House of Delegates unceremoniously shelved a bill on Friday that would have reduced criminal penalties for the possession of drugs. In a 6-2 vote, the House’s Courts of Justice Subcommittee #1 approved a motion for HB 612 to be “laid on the table” – meaning the measure is now unlikely to be…
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Virginia Lawmakers Hit Impasse Over Releasing Cannabis Prisoners After Legalization
In Virginia, the fate of people incarcerated for cannabis-related crimes is still up in the air. On Monday, Virginia’s Cannabis Oversight Commission, a panel of lawmakers charged with making legislative recommendations for this year’s session, proposed speeding up the launch of recreational weed sales by one full year to 2023. But the 10-member commission couldn’t…
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Deadly Logan Circle Shooting Could Be Tied To Weed Delivery Gone Wrong
A shooting that left two men dead early on Monday morning in D.C.’s Logan Circle neighborhood may have been tied to a cannabis delivery gone wrong. According to a report by NBC4, D.C. police said the tragic incident occurred when a couple from out of town ordered weed delivered to an AirBnB unit they were…
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Federal Cannabis Prosecutions Hit New Lows As Fentanyl Cases Skyrocket
Federal cannabis prosecutions continued to decline in 2021, hitting fresh lows as fentanyl and methamphetamine cases climbed to record highs, according to a preliminary report released this week by the U.S. Sentencing Commission (USSC). Over the last decade, prosecutions by the U.S. government for weed trafficking or possession have steeply and consistently declined. The USSC…
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Paraphernalia Decriminalization Bill Falls Short in Maryland After Hopes of Veto Override
A bill to lower criminal penalties for the possession of drug paraphernalia fell short in Maryland this week after the General Assembly opted to skip a vote to override a veto of the legislation. On Monday morning, lawmakers convened for a special legislative session in Annapolis to approve new Congressional district boundaries and consider overrides…
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AOC Joins Forces With GOP Lawmaker On Bill To Help States Expunge Cannabis Records
The number of cannabis bills making their way through Congress keeps growing. A bi-partisan pair of House lawmakers, Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Dave Joyce (R-OH), introduced federal legislation on Thursday that would offer states financial and administrative support to expunge pot-related offenses. The Harnessing Opportunities by Pursuing Expungement (HOPE) Act would allow the U.S.…
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After I-81, How Legal Are Shrooms Now In D.C.? A Local Attorney Explains.
District voters took a big leap forward on the drug-liberalization front last year with the overwhelming passage of Initiative 81. The ballot initiative directed D.C. Police to cut back on the enforcement of laws that criminalize the planting, growing, distributing and buying of plant-based psychedelics, and for prosecutors to cease charging residents for such activities.…
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Can Maryland Expunge All Possession Charges After Legalizing Cannabis? It’s Complicated, Officials Say.
As advocates and legislators gear up for Maryland’s most serious legalization push yet, officials are giving some overdue focus to the other side of the coin: what to do about decades’ worth of prior cannabis possession charges and convictions? “It is an incredibly large number of cases that have been identified that go all the…
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Q&A: How Will Virginia Tax Cannabis Sales To Repair The Harms Of Prohibition?
Note: This story was first published by District Fray Magazine as part of a collaboration with The Outlaw Report on Take Me Down to Cannabis City, an insider’s guide to the legalization of cannabis in Virginia. Janice Underwood knows what it’s like to be on the front lines. In 2019, she was appointed by Gov.…
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‘Cannabis Clubs’ Crop Up In Virginia, Legal Or Not
Now in month three of the legalization era, Virginians are enjoying newfound freedoms with recreational weed: they can grow up to four plants at home, consume in private at their leisure and give it away to friends and relatives age 21 and over. And while a sanctioned recreational industry is still a ways off, that…