The Virginia Normal Meeting made historical past two years in the past when it voted to legalize private cultivation of marijuana and possession of the plant in small quantities, changing into the primary state within the South to take action.
Sadly, the laws solely went midway. Whereas lawmakers eliminated prison punishment for leisure hashish use, they didn’t take the mandatory steps to ascertain a business market, successfully leaving the commonwealth in limbo.
Now’s the time for Virginia to maneuver ahead on this concern. Carving out a path to a authorized market will present wanted readability for legislation enforcement and allow the commonwealth to start reaping the substantial monetary windfall that leisure hashish is projected to convey.
For Virginia — for a lot of the nation, in reality — the talk over legalizing the leisure use of hashish now not facilities on the query of “if” however the questions of “when” and “how.”
Some 37 states, 4 U.S. territories and the District of Columbia have medical marijuana applications, the oldest (California’s) relationship again 27 years. A further 12 states permit prescriptions of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the primary psychoactive element of hashish, in low doses.
Twenty-one states and the District have permitted legal guidelines permitting private possession, cultivation and use of marijuana. Virginia joined these ranks in 2021 when the Normal Meeting handed a legislation permitting adults 21 and older to own as much as 1 ounce of hashish with out penalty. Adults are additionally permitted to develop as much as 4 crops at house.
It’s nonetheless unlawful in Virginia to own or promote giant quantities of the plant, to devour pot in public and to drive below the affect. However the legislation contained a few key contradictions. Whereas marijuana is authorized to develop, it’s nonetheless unlawful to purchase seeds. Whereas it’s authorized to own and use, it’s nonetheless unlawful to promote.
Virginia Democrats, who managed each chambers of the legislature, couldn’t attain settlement about how greatest to ascertain a authorized market, together with how to make sure alternative to minority entrepreneurs and the way income may greatest assist communities adversely affected by the struggle on medicine.
So as a substitute, they kicked the can down the street. They set a faraway date for the beginning of authorized gross sales — 2024 — and promised to return to the problem in 2022. However the 2021 election noticed Republicans ascend to the Home majority and elevated Glenn Youngkin to the governor’s workplace, so Virginia’s development of a authorized market would require bipartisan cooperation.
That could possibly be for one of the best. A number of key Virginia Republicans final yr signaled their willingness to work on the problem and to speed up the beginning date, although payments to that impact fizzled out. And Youngkin did signal a invoice that streamlined the medical marijuana system, which is a promising signal.
The actual fact is, this needs to be a simple win for Virginia. The Joint Legislative Audit & Overview Fee spelled out in a 2020 report the steps wanted to ascertain a dependable and profitable authorized market. And it’s not as if the commonwealth must invent the wheel; there are many fashions in different states from which to borrow.
Lawmakers on each side of the aisle ought to need to see this by way of to supply wanted readability to legislation enforcement and regulators, who can’t be anticipated to function in so unsure an setting. They’re left enjoying Whac-A-Mole — attempting to root out unlawful merchandise and acts, however with out agency and dependable tips for working in an evolving hashish panorama.
Extra importantly, every passing yr that Virginia doesn’t comply with by way of is one other wherein different states can leapfrog the commonwealth and siphon away the potential advantages — as much as 18,000 jobs and $308 million in annual income, per the JLARC research.
The present scenario — one foot in, one foot out — will not be sustainable and wishes readability shortly. Lawmakers should attain settlement on how greatest to ascertain and regulate a authorized market for marijuana in Virginia.