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After House Approval Of Bill Legalizing Marijuana Nationwide, Attention Turns To Senate

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The House earlier this month passed a bill legalizing marijuana nationwide, and now the focus shifts to the Senate to see if the Democratic majority passes similar legislation. 

The House bill was approved on April 1 by a 220-204 margin, with three Republicans voting in favor and two Democrats voting against it. The action marks the second time the House has passed legislation legalizing marijuana across the country. 

In an April 5 press conference, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-New York, said that he hopes to bring up comprehensive marijuana reform towards the end of this month. 

Schumer also said he was talking with Democratic Sens. Cory Booker of New Jersey and Ron Wyden of Oregon, as well as a few Republicans, to see what they want in potential legislation. 

But the likelihood of the Senate passing comprehensive legislation is low, according to Morgan Fox, political director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML).

“Cannabis (support) is not universal, even among Democrats, let alone Republicans, who tend to lag much farther behind on this particular issue,” Fox told Capital News Service. “As of now, there hasn’t really been any substantive conversation about comprehensive cannabis policy reform at all in the Senate.”

NORML is one of several marijuana advocacy organizations that have been active on Capitol Hill supporting federal cannabis legislation. 

Fox believes that the Senate will prove a tougher challenge than the House because many senators are older than their House counterparts and have a generational prejudice against marijuana.

“The average age of the Senate falls within the age demographic that polling has shown to be the least supportive of cannabis policy reform or legalization,” Fox explained. “A lot of that is because of generational education… It’s really just a matter of educating senators and their staff about the issue and providing them with the most up-to-date data and information about how states are successfully regulating cannabis.”

Chris Lindsey, director of Government Relations for the Marijuana Policy Project, agreed. 

“We have a large majority of both Republican and Democratic voters who support legalization,” he told CNS. “Lawmakers tend to be some of the last people to get the memo on this. It happens at the state level as well, it’s just happening on a larger scale at the federal level.”

Another potential roadblock to passing marijuana legalization, according to Lindsey, is the hyper-partisan environment in the Senate. 

“The challenge with proposals that have been put forward is getting the bipartisanship needed for their passage,” he said.

“For instance, there are legalization bills that have been put forth by Republicans. It’s not very likely we will see a lot of Democrats signing on,” Lindsey said. “It doesn’t mean that they don’t like legalization, it just means we live in a really partisan environment that factors how much support you get on these bills.”

Rep. Dave Joyce, R-Ohio, was among those who voted against the House bill.

“By failing to establish a regulatory framework upon ending federal prohibition, targeting expungement relief to individuals with federal records, and further polarizing this issue rather than building the foundation necessary for bipartisan buy-in, the MORE Act is a messaging bill at best and at worst, irresponsible,” he wrote in an op-ed for Marijuana Moment.

The office of Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Maryland, said that “the senator looks forward to reviewing the legislation when it comes under consideration in the Senate…”

The office of Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Maryland, did not respond to a request for comment.

President Joe Biden has stopped short of supporting legalizing marijuana at the federal level. As a candidate, he said marijuana should be decriminalized and criminal records for marijuana possession should be expunged.

The powerful American Medical Association is among the opponents who have cautioned against legalizing marijuana.

“The science about the benefits of cannabis is limited, while the available evidence demonstrates that legalizing the adult use of cannabis poses a threat to public health,” former AMA President Dr. Susan Bailey wrote on the organization’s website a year ago. “Our AMA does not support legalization of cannabis for adult use until additional scientific research has been completed to fully document the public health, medical and economic consequences of its use.”

Even so, better than two out of three Americans — 68 percent — support legalizing marijuana, according to a November Gallup poll.

In the past decade, 18 states have legalized cannabis for recreational use, which is still considered a Schedule I substance by the federal government. Thirty-seven states have legalized cannabis for medical purposes.

Maryland voters will decide in November whether cannabis should be legalized for recreational use.

If the Senate ended up passing comprehensive marijuana legislation, it would not change any state laws regarding cannabis regulation, Fox said. This means that states that restrict cannabis could continue to do so. 

However, federal legislation could remove cannabis from being considered a Schedule I Controlled Substance, which is defined by the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) as drugs with “no currently accepted medical use” and “a high potential for abuse,” including heroin and ecstasy.

“I expect that there will still be a handful of states that continue prohibition well into the future, unfortunately,” Fox said. “But, when they start seeing law enforcement and public health savings, job creation and tax revenue, and social justice benefits, I would hope that those states will start fast-tracking legislation for modern cannabis regulation.”

Written by Margaret Attridge, Capital News Service. Photo by Wesley Gibbs on Unsplash.

Legal Weed Is Now A Thing In Virginia. Here’s What You Can And Can’t Do.

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Virginia legalized it; mere hours from now, you will legally be able to possess small amounts of marijuana within the commonwealth. But can you legally buy it? Grow it? Well, that’s complicated. Let RVA Mag break it down for you.

Beginning July 1, 2020, adults in Virginia aged 21 years old or older will be able to legally possess and cultivate small amounts of marijuana, in the privacy of their own homes, for recreational purposes. It’s a monumental move for a Southern state — particularly considering that legalization was originally slated to be delayed until 2024. 

The legalization bill is nuanced, as 283-page documents tend to be. It’s also peppered with contradictions: you can grow weed, but you can’t legally purchase the seeds or clippings needed to do so. Possessing more than one ounce (28.3 grams) of pot is illegal, but you can own up to 4 plants (which will, in theory, produce more weed than the legal limit allows). And while the law legalizes simple possession of marijuana, there’s no way to legally purchase it for recreational use.

To that end, RVAMag spoke with Jenn Michelle Pedini, the Development Director for the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) and Executive Director of Virginia NORML, about the law’s discrepancies, nuances, and what you can and can’t do. 

Photo by Richard T on Unsplash.

Now that weed is legal, how can I legally obtain it? 

You can’t — unless you have a medical card. Until the Virginia Cannabis Control Authority licenses adult-use retailers (expected to take place in 2024), the only way to legally purchase marijuana in the Commonwealth is if you are a registered medical patient shopping at one of the state’s four licensed medical cannabis dispensaries. (You can find a practitioner and get certified for the state’s medical cannabis program here.)

Other legal options include growing marijuana yourself or receiving it as a gift from someone who grows.

Illegal options include finding weed the good ol’ fashioned way via Virginia’s black market, the fourth-largest illicit market in the nation. 

Can I smoke in public? 

No. You’ll receive a $25 fine if you’re caught using marijuana or offering it to others in public. A second offense would require you to participate in a mandatory drug treatment program, while a third offense is a Class 4 Misdemeanor. 

Possessing marijuana on school grounds or on a school bus is also still illegal. 

Can my employer still fire me for smoking weed? 

Yes. While there are some protections for card-carrying registered medical cannabis patients, recreational marijuana users are not protected from employment discrimination. That means your employer can still drug test and fire you at will if you test positive for marijuana. 

I’m under 21; what happens if I’m caught with marijuana? 

People under age 21 caught in possession of marijauana will face a $25 fine and mandatory substance abuse program or education.

I’m an adult; what happens if I’m caught with more than an ounce of marijuana?

Adults caught with more than an ounce but less than one pound of marijuana will face a $25 fine.

Adults caught with more than a pound are subject to felony charges, punishable by between one and 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000. 

Will Washington D.C.’s “gifting” economy happen in Virginia?

The unregulated marijuana “gifting economy” in Washington D.C. is infamous. Selling marijuana is technically illegal in DC, but delivery services and retailers are able to distribute weed to consumers by including it as a “totally unrelated” “free gift” alongside, for example, a $75 sticker, $45 t-shirt, or a $120 keychain. 

Virginia lawmakers are well aware of this loophole and explicitly banned it in the state’s legalization bill: “Adult sharing” does not include instances in which (i) marijuana is given away contemporaneously with another reciprocal transaction between the same parties; (ii) a gift of marijuana is offered or advertised in conjunction with an offer for the sale of goods or services; or (iii) a gift of marijuana is contingent upon a separate reciprocal transaction for goods or services,” the bill states. 

Photo by Matthew Brodeur on Unsplash.

Can you transport marijuana in a car? 

Drivers or passengers may not consume or possess an open container of cannabis while a vehicle is in operation — but it’s not totally clear what an “open container” means. That’s because Virginia’s legalization law was written under the assumption that regulated retail sales, and thus regulated containers, would already be established. That’s not the case.  

“The entire concept of a container is different for marijuana than it is for alcohol,” said Sen. Scott Surovell told VPM. “If you were buying marijuana from a retail location, it would probably come in a labeled and marked bag with somebody’s name on it, with the weight shown. It would be a little easier to figure out if the so-called container had been opened or not.”

For now, Pedini recommends anyone transporting cannabis in a vehicle to ensure that it is in “a completely sealed and locked container” in the trunk of your vehicle or in the area behind the last seats. 

“It’s pretty easy to stay within the context of the law by following these guidelines,” Pedini says.  

Will prior marijuana possession charges and convictions be sealed? 

Simple possession of marijuana records were sealed in 2020, and all records of misdemeanor possession with intent to distribute marijuana will be automatically sealed from public view in the Virginia State Police’s systems on July 1, 2021. 

Meanwhile, “after several state entities overhaul record-keeping systems” all records, including records of arrests, charges, and convictions, for simple possession of marijuana or misdemeanor possession with the intent to distribute will be automatically sealed across all state and private databases. The state says that process will happen by July 2025. 

A process is also being created to allow those convicted of more serious marijuana charges — like felony possession with intent to distribute — to seal their records as well. 

Will people in prison for marijuana charges be released? 

No, at least not immediately. Despite the fact that marijuana will be legal, people currently incarcerated on marijuana-related charges will remain behind bars.  

Lawmakers discussed implementing a provision that would allow judges to amend the sentences of already incarcerated people, but the provision failed to pass. It will be revisited in 2022.

“Now we’re going to be in a situation where you’ve got people still sitting in jail for the very thing that we’ve already legalized,”  said Sen. Louise Lucas, D-Portsmouth, who co-sponsored the legislation. “It makes no sense to me.”

Top Photo by Shelby Ireland on Unsplash.

Attorney General Sparks Up Conversation on Legalizing Recreational Marijuana

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Last week, Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring took to social media to voice his support for “legal, regulated adult use” of marijuana — a sentiment that, according to a just-released study, more than half of Virginians support.

Attorney General Mark Herring tweeted his support for the legalization of recreational marijuana in Virginia last week. 

“Virginians know we can do better. It’s time to move toward legal, regulated adult use,” Herring said in his retweet of a study that revealed more than half of Virginians agree with him. 

The study, published by the University of Mary Washington last month, showed that 61 percent of Virginians support legalization of recreational marijuana, while 34 percent oppose legalization. The remaining respondents said they were uncertain.

 This is a noticeable uptick from a UMW study conducted in 2017 that showed 39 percent of Virginians in support of legalizing marijuana for personal use. The 2017 question was worded differently, asking if marijuana should be legalized in general, for personal or medical use, or remain illegal. A plurality said medical marijuana should be legal, and the rest (17 percent) were opposed to legalization. 

Recreational use of marijuana is becoming an increasingly popular issue for Virginia politicians as they go into the November State Senate elections and the upcoming 2021 gubernatorial elections. 

Stephen Farnsworth, a UMW political science professor, said he believes that legalization is several years away, but the timeline could change if a Democratic majority is elected in November. Eighty percent of the Commonwealth’s youth (25 and under) are in favor of recreational marijuana, Farnsworth said. “Winning the support of younger voters can be key.” 

The 2019 Cannabis Convention was presented by the Virginia National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. Photo by Madison Manske, Capital News Service

Almost all marijuana-related arrests last year (90 percent) were for possession alone, and arrests for marijuana possession have increased 115 percent from 2003 to 2017, according to a press release from the attorney general’s office. First time marijuana convictions in Virginia have risen 53 percent from 2008 to 2017, with enforcement costs estimated to be nearly $81 million a year.

Herring, a candidate in the 2021 gubernatorial elections, has long voiced his support for decriminalization of marijuana. 

Micheal Kelly, director of communications for Herring, said in an email the attorney general believes “Virginia needs to decriminalize possession of small amounts of marijuana, take action to address past convictions, and a move towards legal and regulated adult use in Virginia.”

Written by Jeff Raines, Capital News Service. Top Photo: Attorney General Mark Herring condemning Virginia’s legislature for failing to pass a number of bills on gun regulation (CNS photo by Adam Hamza)

Herring Calls For Marijuana Decriminalization

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In a Daily Press Op-Ed published on Sunday, Virginia’s Attorney General made the case for decriminalizing possession of marijuana.

In a move that pleased cannabis advocates and made headlines around the state, Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring wrote an op-ed in Sunday’s Daily Press calling for the decriminalization of “minor marijuana possession.”

“Virginia should decriminalize possession of small amounts of marijuana, address past convictions and start moving toward legal and regulated adult use,” Herring wrote in the op-ed.

Herring cited a massive increase in arrests and first-time convictions for marijuana possession in Virginia between 2008 and 2017. According to Herring, arrests have increased 115 percent, from 13,000 in 2008 to 28,000 in 2017, while first-time marijuana convictions have risen in the same time period from 6,500 to 10,000.

He also pointed out that those affected by arrest and prosecution for marijuana possession are disproportionately African-Americans and people of color. “The Virginia Crime Commission found that African Americans comprised 46% of all first offense possession arrests from 2007 to 2016, despite comprising just 20% of Virginia’s population and despite studies consistently showing that marijuana usage rates are comparable between African Americans and white Americans,” Herring wrote in the op-ed.

As Attorney General, Herring’s position at the state level won’t have an impact on prosecutions, which take place at the level of local government. He did praise Commonwealth’s Attorneys who have made moves to reduce the number of marijuana possession cases moving through the courts, but said that “locality-by-locality action is no substitute for a rational, unified statewide policy.”

In order to make any sort of practical change on this level, Herring will need his cause to be taken up by members of the General Assembly. The state legislature, which has been Republican-controlled for nearly a decade, has previously blocked any attempts to reform the commonwealth’s marijuana laws. However, Delegate Steve Heretick of Virginia’s 79th District, which includes parts of Norfolk, Portsmouth, and Chesapeake, told 13NewsNow that he intended to introduce legislation to decriminalize simple marijuana possession in the 2020 General Assembly session.

“Over 36 states and U.S. territories have regulated marijuana use by adults, so Virginia is not new to this,” Heretick said to 13NewsNow. “We have been looking at criminalization and legalization for some time now.”

Jenn Michelle Pedini, who is the Executive Director of the Virginia chapter of NORML (National Organization for Reform of Marijuana Laws), saw Herring’s statement as a positive and helpful step.

“The public’s response to Attorney General Herring’s statement not only supporting decriminalizing but legalizing and regulating adult use of marijuana has been overwhelmingly positive,” Pedini told 13NewsNow. “What this does is moves this issue to the front burner of Virginia politics.”

In November, all 140 members of the Virginia General Assembly will face elections. With Republican control of both houses held by an extremely narrow margin (21-19 in the Virginia Senate, 51-49 in the House Of Delegates), Democrats will be working hard to gain control and have an opportunity to pass a variety of legislation long blocked by Republican lawmakers. If Democrats do regain control of the General Assembly, it seems very likely that marijuana reform will be one of the first issues on the docket.

And for Herring, it’s high time. “We can’t avoid the conversation any longer,” he wrote in the Daily Press. “It is time for Virginia to embrace a better, smarter, and fairer approach to cannabis.”

Despite High Costs & Unequal Enforcement, Decriminalization Remains Out Of Reach In VA

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While most of Virginia may be enjoying some good, old-fashioned reefer madness today, at least 22,000 people will be left out this year, paying fines and sitting in jail as decriminalization efforts have failed to take effect. Most of them are Black.

Sorry to bring down your high.

“[Decriminalization] is an urgent criminal justice and racial justice issue in Virginia that lawmakers should be taking more seriously,” said Bill Farrar, director of strategic communications at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

According to a study conducted by ACLU, 8.2 million arrests are made each year for marijuana possession, while people of color are 3.72 more likely to be arrested for possession. Farrar stated that in certain areas of Virginia, they are eight times as likely to be arrested. Those arrested are most often carrying less than an ounce of marijuana, yet have exorbitant fees and often spend time in jail. Currently, being caught with less than half an ounce is a misdemeanor, but anything over a half ounce is considered a felony.

“The commonwealth spends nearly three quarters of a billion dollars each year enforcing a law that dramatically and disparately entangles people of color in the criminal justice system, while neglecting to fund programs to help people with mental illness or directly address the growing opioid problem,” Farrar said.

This past General Assembly session, two senators presented bills with decriminalization efforts and both failed at the Courts of Justice committee level, meaning they never reached the floor for a general vote.

“It’s important to note that African-Americans only make up 20 percent of Virginia’s population yet are arrested three times more than whites for marijuana possession when use is equal between races,” said Jenn Michelle Pedini, executive director at Virginia NORML (National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws) who assisted Senator Adam Ebbin in writing Senate Bill 111, which would decriminalize marijuana and reduce charges to a simple $50 fine on the first offense with subsequent fine increase to $100 and $250 for second and third offenses.

“You have to work with intent to suss out 20 percent of your population and target them three times more,” Pedini said. “That’s not unique, we see it play out throughout the country, and it’s not to say that law enforcement is inherently biased against African-Americans, or explicitly biased, more likely it is them exercising their implicit bias. This is how systemic oppression plays out in America.”

In addition to this systemic oppression, both Farrar and Pedini cited gross spending habits by the Virginia state government to continue arrests for marijuana possession. According to a study by the Drug Policy Alliance, Virginia spends $70 million annually on marijuana possession arrests and prosecutions alone.

“That is more than the Commonwealth has budgeted for the current fiscal year for statewide capital improvements to transportation and natural resources combined, and 14 percent more than the amount of general funds budgeted to support the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services – which deals with mental health and substance abuse treatment, among other things – for the entire 2016-18 biennium,” Senator Ebbin said in a statement to the General Assembly in February.

In 2016, many activists and politicians worked to find money for processing thousands of backlogged rape test kits and struggled to find it. “We didn’t have a few thousand dollars to see who had raped someone, then had to waste time and money arguing about how to find a couple million dollars to process those backlogged kits,” Pedini said. “Meanwhile, pot possession, which has little or no public safety impact, we have $70 million for.”

A portion of this spending is for programs like the Virginia Alcohol Safety Action Program (VASAP), a court-ordered addiction clinic. Twenty-one percent of those ordered to VASAP are there for marijuana possession, equal to the percent sent in for opioid and heroin.

“If we stopped this waste of taxpayer dollars and instead decriminalized, removed that six months to one year rehab requirement, you would immediately double access to treatment for opioid and heroin addiction,” Pedini said.

Senator Tommy Norment promised during his campaign to put forward a decriminalization bill as well, but later reduced it to an expungement bill. Both Farrar and Pedini were disappointed in this change, and Senator Ebbin openly objected to it on the Assembly floor.

“The members of these subcommittees are primarily prosecutors, and they’re not interested in passing legislation that limits or reduces their prosecutorial discretion,” Pedini said.

In a 2018 poll released by Virginia Commonwealth University, eight out of ten Virginians said they would prefer reducing the marijuana possession misdemeanor conviction to a fine and are in favor of reform.

“Virginians want us to decriminalize marijuana possession, not to create a new fish trap that doesn’t do anything to address the racial disparities in our current criminal justice system nor address the high costs of continuing to criminalize simple possession,” Senator Ebbin said.

Pedini and Farrar are hopeful that Senator Ebbin’s bill will pass in 2020 after the 2019 elections.

“We’re ruining people’s lives with this… We don’t need some tiny half step to pretend like that’s reform,” Pedini said. “We need real reform, and that’s decriminalization. This criminal charge is going to follow people for the rest of their lives, can lead to them losing their children, being evicted, losing their job, losing their scholarships.”

Image by Vivienne Lee

Could this be the Year for a Medical Marijuana Breakthrough in Virginia?

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While much of the media attention surrounding marijuana reform in Virginia has been focused on decriminalization this past year, it is another facet of the movement that appears most poised for a major legislative advance this session of the General Assembly:

Medical marijuana.

“The biggest hope for gains is on the healthcare front,” said Jenn Michelle Pedini, executive director of Virginia NORML. “Senator Dunnavant and Delegate Cline’s Joint Commission on Health Care bills would expand Virginia’s medical cannabis program so that all patients will have access.”

Senate Bill 726 is a “doctor’s decide” bill, meaning that physicians in the Commonwealth will be able to recommend the use of cannabidiol oil or THC-A oil to treat or alleviate the symptoms of any diagnosed condition or disease determined by the practitioner to benefit from such use.

“This would expand patient access to extraction-based cannabis medicines that will meet the need of Virginia’s most critically ill patients — as well as those suffering from everyday conditions like arthritis,” said Pedini.

This bill is more likely to be successful than efforts in the past because it was originated through the committee process, and has been shepherded by a Republican doctor, Senator Siobhan Dunnavant.

“States that have medical cannabis laws see a 25 percent reduction in opiate overdose deaths,” Sen. Dunnavant wrote in a blog she posted about the bill on her website. “We are all aware of the opiate crisis we are combating at the state and national level. Evidence shows that the anti-inflammatory properties of THC a oil help reduce chronic pain.”

Last year, Gov. McAuliffe signed into law legislation to allow the licensing of five pharmaceutical processors — one per health service area in the state — which will produce medical cannabis oils.

“These facilities will look more like a CVS than a Colorado dispensary,” said Pedini.

SB 726’s companion bill in the House, HB 1251, unanimously passed through subcommittee today, clearing what might have been its most substantial hurdle on its path to being law.

And there is increasing evidence that marijuana is actually a “step down” drug that could prove a major force in combating the Commonwealth’s opioid epidemic. Medical cannabis legalization leads to a substantial drop in opioid-related hospital visits, reported the Department of Family Medicine and Public Health at the University of California San Diego.

Advocates for marijuana decriminalization were let down when Senate Majority leader Tommy Norment — who previously had voiced support for decriminalization — instead introduced an expungement bill.

“We’re still examining the ultimate impact of this legislation,” said Pedini. “The way it looks right now, this bill would not make the expungement process affordable for the majority of defendants.”

The public sentiment on the issue is clear: the Commonwealth wants marijuana reform. Recently the Virginia Crime Commission solicited citizen feedback on the issue. Staff received over 5,665 written comments, of which 3,743 supported decriminalization and 107 did not.

The racial disparity in marijuana-related arrests in Virginia is alarming. “Males, young adults, and Blacks are over-represented in the total number of arrests for possession as compared to their overall general population in Virginia,” cited the nonpartisan Crime Commission report. While whites and blacks use marijuana at similar rates, in Virginia blacks are charged at a rate of over 3-to-1. In some parts of Virginia, that ratio is 11-to-1.

All marijuana-related bills pass through the Courts of Justice Committees. From there they would head to the House and Senate for votes, and then to the desk of newly inaugurated Gov. Ralph Northam, who has previously stated his support for doctor-recommended medical cannabis.

“Marijuana decriminalization is a racial justice issue,” Dr. Northam has stated.

During the 2018 General Assembly session — which runs from January 10 to March 10 — legislators will vote on thousands of bills. They rely on feedback from constituents to determine their votes.

“If people want to support this, use the Virginia NORML email action alert, and pick up the phone and call your elected officials,” said Pedini.

Cover Photo by Harvard Health 

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