Category: Virginia
-
Legalize It Right: Advocates Critique Governor Northam’s Cannabis Plan
On Jan. 13, Governor Northam released a 400-page bill outlining a process to legalize recreational adult cannabis use in Virginia by 2023. The following evening, ACLU Virginia and Marijuana Justice hosted a discussion called, “Legalize Marijuana Right,” which featured local and national speakers from the cannabis space. While the online forum was planned before Northam’s…
-
Can Prosecutors Drop Cannabis Cases? Virginia Supreme Court Won’t Weigh In, This Time
Prosecutorial discretion, the power of government prosecutors to choose which cases to pursue or dismiss, has been under scrutiny lately in Virginia, especially in regard to cannabis charges. In late 2020, the Supreme Court of Virginia declined to engage in a conflict between Arlington Commonwealth’s Attorney Parisa Dehghani-Tafti and county judges, over Dehghani-Tafti’s choice to…
-
The Year in Cannabis: Virginia
The police killing of George Floyd was not mentioned in The Outlaw Report’s year in cannabis round-ups for Maryland and Washington D.C. That’s because the state, which has decriminalized cannabis since 2014, and the District, which has had legal cannabis since 2014, did very little to address the obvious intersection between racial justice and cannabis…
-
Virginia Governor Budgets for Cannabis Legalization as Richmond Mayor Calls for Equity
Cannabis legalization in Virginia is advancing rapidly—two of the latest strategic moves are the Governor’s budget proposal and a letter from the Richmond Mayor. On Dec. 16, Virginia Governor Ralph Northam included funding for legalization in proposed amendments to the 2020–2022 budget, following through on his official statement of support for adult-use legalization. Earlier in…
-
Virginia Considers Cannabis Legalization, Reckons With Racial Inequity
2020 was a banner year for cannabis reform in Virginia, with the Commonwealth finally launching its medicinal cannabis program, decriminalizing cannabis possession up to an ounce, making it so that police can no longer search Virginians’ vehicles based on cannabis smell alone, and Governor Ralph Northam announcing that he is—finally—taking legalization seriously. A major part…
-
Third Medicinal Cannabis Dispensary Opens in Virginia
Virginia’s third medicinal cannabis dispensary, Beyond/Hello, opened its doors on December 1 in Manassas. The 93,000 square foot warehouse is located off Highway 66 and about half a mile from the George Mason University science campus. Beyond/Hello was one of five dispensaries, or “pharmaceutical processors”, selected out of 51 applicants by the Virginia Board of…
-
Virginia Legalization Workgroup’s Report Released
On Monday, November 30, Virginia Governor Ralph Northam released “Report to the Virginia General Assembly and Governor of Virginia: Impact on the Commonwealth of Legalizing the Sale and Personal Use of Marijuana,” the Virginia Legalization Workgroup’s nearly 500-page report on how to go about legalizing cannabis in the state. The report had to be completed…
-
The MORE Act, Explained
It was about a year ago that The Marijuana Opportunity, Reinvestment, and Expungement Act—The MORE Act—first passed the House Judiciary Committee with a vote of 24-10. Introduced on July 23, 2019, the MORE Act would remove cannabis from the Controlled Substances Act, effectively decriminalizing it nationwide and make it much easier for states to legalize…
-
Virginia Ends Searches Based on Cannabis Smell Alone and Plans To Push Legalization
Virginia Governor Ralph Northam and Virginia’s House and Senate are all in agreement over House Bill 5058 and Senate Bill 5029, which will prevent law enforcement from searching people, people’s homes and/or vehicles solely due to cannabis smell. The bill recently passed the House and the Senate and was then amended slightly by Northam. That…
-
Following Cannabis Legalization Wave, MORE Act Will Finally Get a Vote
Less than a week after an election that expanded cannabis legalization with voters in Arizona, Montana, New Jersey, South Dakota all approving ballot measures (not to mention Oregon voting to decriminalize all drugs), the Democrat-controlled Congress has announced they will vote on The Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement Act (MORE) next month. The MORE Act…
-
Out Of State Cannabis Growers A Concern in West Virginia
Early last month, West Virginia’s Office of Medical Cannabis (OMC) within the Department of Health and Human Resources announced that it had approved the first 10 medicinal cannabis grower permits out of a total of 39 applicants. Medicinal cannabis was approved in 2017 after West Virginians voted in favor of it but the program is…
-
‘Tainted’ Cannabis Scare in Virginia Makes The Case For Legalization
Last week, Alexandria, Virginia officials put out a warning to citizens about the possibility of cannabis that, they wrote, “may be mixed with unusual substances.” The warning was put out after there were what officials characterized as four “overdoses”—including one fatal overdose—that it would seem, cannabis was involved. The three people who suffered non-fatal overdoses…