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Supporting marijuana decriminalization in Virginia

RVA Staff | August 1, 2017

Topics: decriminalization, Ed Gillespie, governor's race, prohibition, Ralph Northam, weed

One of the ever-present issues in 2017 is the debate surrounding marijuana decriminalization and legalization. As support for marijuana increases nationally, legislators have been forced to respond by modernizing their positions.

Republicans used to be united in their opposition to drug legalization, but it has become a divisive topic in the conservative ranks, especially with more Libertarian-leaning Republicans like Senator Rand Paul calling for an end for the war on drugs. Democrats have already been in favor of marijuana reform for some time, due to known racial disparities in arrests and what is seen as an misappropriated use of police resources away from violent crime.

Ralph Northam, the Lieutenant Governor of Virginia and current Democratic nominee for Governor has come out much more in favor of marijuana reform than his GOP counterparts, although not as progressive as his primary election opponent Tom Perriello – according to a report card released by The Marijuana Policy Project (MPP).

Nonetheless, according to the MPP report card Northam’s Republican opponent Ed Gillespie, scored a solid D, while he received a respectable B only falling short of Perriello due to a lack of detailed responses to the whole questionnaire.

Based on statements made by Northam, his understanding of the issue is not just predicated on his experience as a medical doctor, but also in acknowledging the disproportionate arrest rate of African Americans at a rate of almost 3 to 1.

In an interview with RVA Mag’s Transmission series during the primary, he came out in strong support of decriminalization of marijuana, claiming, “There are far too many people who use marijuana who end up in our courts, jails, and penitentiaries…there is also an inequality out there. African Americans are 2.8 times more likely to be arrested and put in jail for marijuana. So I’m all about decriminalizing marijuana.”

                 

The Gillespie campaign denied RVA Mag’s requests for information on the Republican nominee’s stance towards marijuana. However, the MPP gave him a D rating because he, “opposes decriminalization and adult-use, and his position on medical marijuana is unknown.”

Regardless, Gillespie’s communications director, David Abrams, claimed that the candidate is in favor of, “exploring reforms to make sure that penalties align appropriately to the offense committed,” and “is evaluating whether legalizing medicinal marijuana is right for Virginia and talking to people about it before deciding his policy.”

Despite this, planks related to marijuana decriminalization don’t appear anywhere in the issues section of his campaign website, and it appears that this statement is one of a very few on drug policy.

However, understanding how decriminalization and the reform needed to implement it works, requires a deeper understanding of the issue beyond just campaign talking points. In April, Virginia’s State Crime Commission agreed to undertake a study that assesses weather Virginia should decriminalize small amounts of marijuana.

The Virginia branch of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (Virginia NORML) is based in Richmond and has been one of the most stalwart proponents of marijuana legalization for decades.

Yet Jenn Michelle Pedini, executive director of the organization, believes that Virginia is making progress on marijuana reform, although slowly.

In March of this year, Gov. Terry McAullife signed two marijuana reform bills, one which allows discretion in suspending people’s drivers licenses who are caught with small amounts of drugs, while the other allows pharmaceutical companies to manufacture and produce cannabidiol oil and THC-A oil to treat epilepsy – a first step towards potentially legalizing medicinal marijuana.

“It is limited only to one condition, which is intractable epilepsy,”said Pedini. “So we do not want to follow the route that other states have taken, where they have to come back year after year after year, and revise their code, wasting legislative hours and thousands of dollars trying to decide which patients deserve access this year and which patients still deserve jail. That’s nonsense; we don’t do that with any other healthcare issue.”

Medicinal Marijuana Oil. Photo by Medical Marijuana Exchange

This sentiment was reinforced up by Daniel Rouleau, the organization’s communications director. He explained that despite over half of the 50 states having access to medical cannabis, “we… [Virginia] still criminalize legal medical access and any adult access.”

The racial dynamics of how marijuana enforcement is implemented throughout law enforcement also remains a priority for NORML. Similar to the viewpoint of the Democratic candidates, Pedini addressed the disparity in arrests despite it being well known that people of all races use marijuana at equal rates.

“While we know across the racial spectrum, people use cannabis at similar rates, in Virginia, African-Americans are three times more likely to be arrested for possession than whites are,” said Pedini. “In some municipalities, it’s as high as eight times as much…and we do understand that this is simply an exercise in implicit bias. The reason we know that, is because even post-decriminalization, while the number of arrests will decrease drastically, the disparity rate will not change.”

The implicit bias Pedini refers to is the way the police interacts with the community. Rouleau explained that, “If all the police go to a certain area in town, then they’re going to catch stuff that happens in that part of town more often.”

This is tied to a history of housing discrimination that has confined low income people and communities of color to certain areas. He further described a situation in which police will often wait outside of these communities and wait for people to come outside and smoke marijuana, allowing them to be easily targeted.

Crime Graph from Washington Post

“Guess who’s easy to catch? People who are standing outside,” said Rouleau. “If you’re in a wealthy area, you can go to your garage, to your parents’ shed, to your buddy’s house. And it’s kind of tied to properties.” He continued, If you’re lower income, it’s easy policing. Let’s go to where everyone’s standing outside. So we don’t have to get this Fourth Amendment search, we don’t have to proceed through all these constitutional barriers because people have to expose themselves.”

Rouleau said that this strategy is “essentially lazy policing.”

Cindy Cutler, a prominent leader of Decriminalize Norfolk, has always had an interest in criminal justice reform and has been with the organization for almost two years. After reading some articles in the Washington Post and Huffington Post, she discovered that Norfolk had one of the highest arrest rates in the country for people of color.

Speaking with Norfolk Sheriff Joe Baron, she found that all but five out of 86 of the inmates in Norfolk arrested for marijuana possession were African American. When she brought this up to Mayor Kenneth Alexander, he promised to work on marijuana reform with her.

“[Alexander] invited the Speaker, Senator Norment to their annual legislative dinner last year, and that’s where he made a statement [supporting decriminalization],” said Cutler. She said that her organization has 100 percent of the City Council’s support.

Cutler supports Northam’s campaign for governor and his policies on marijuana reform.

This has translated into support for the Democratic nominee for Governor. “I’ve been following Ralph Northam for the last 10 years,” she said. “He’s been a great senator, a lieutenant governor, and he’ll make a great governor. He was the first of all the candidates, including the Democratic candidates, to state that we should decriminalize.”

Cutler recounted Northam’s background as a physician and the first of the gubernatorial candidates, including the Democratic ones, to champion the need for doctors to recommend medical cannabis. She sees this as proof of him knowing what he is talking about and his dedication to working for decriminalization. On the other hand, she sees Gillespie as being a step backwards on drug policy.

“I don’t believe that Gillespie agrees with decrim or medical,” she said. “I think he was the only [gubernatorial candidate] that didn’t agree with anything.”

Read more of RVA Mag’s coverage on marijuana reform below:

“The Highs and lows of weed decriminalization in VA via Radio IQ”

*David Pettyjohn and Landon Shroder contributed to this article. 

Bootleggers, bandits, and the history of Prohibition in Virginia

David Pettyjohn | June 27, 2017

Topics: art gallery, Library of Virginia, moonshine, prohibition

This year marks around the 100th anniversary of Prohibition, also known as the Temperance Movement. Prohibition was an early 1900s social movement against alcohol and the Library of Virginia (LVA) is hosting a new exhibit called, Teetotalers & Moonshiners: Prohibition in Virginia, Distilled on the events surrounding this very sober timeframe in Virginia’s history.

For this exhibit, the LVA worked closely with Virginia Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC), which holds all the state records from the Virginia Prohibition Commission – going back to 1916. Other partners include the Virginia Distiller’s Association and local breweries like Three Notch’d Brewing Company.

Dr. Gregg Kimball, the Director of Public Services and Outreach who has been working at the LVA for over 20 years highlighted the parallels between the war on drugs and the prohibition movement.

“It makes sense to go back and look at Prohibition and see what it tells us about [how] effective the government is at controlling things like this,” said Kimball. “With all of our shows, there’s a usually some kind of public policy issue or current concern that we try to address.”

There are several notable Virginia influences on Prohibition like the bootleggers in Franklin County, “reputed to be the moonshine capital of the world,” according to Kimball. The 2012 movie Lawless featuring Tom Hardy and Shia Labeouf portrays the true story of the Bondurant brothers, Franklin County bootleggers caught-up in a prohibition era murder case.

Part of the movie’s plot centered around their cars and how they were modified by the moonshiners. This aspect of the business gave rise to a very important piece of American popular culture. Featured in the exhibit is a document that lists the legal cases in which the bootleggers’ cars were seized by the authorities.

“So, you see on those lists these really high-end cars,” said Kimball.

The reason for the modification of the cars was so the bootleggers could out run ‘revenuers’ or the law enforcement officers sent to catch them. Some of these outlaws went on to become the very first NASCAR drivers when they started to race these cars professionally. One of these drivers was Wendell Scott the first African American driver from Danville, Virginia.

More recent artifacts include a jug of moonshine that was confiscated by the ABC in 2011 and is still sealed with the original evidence tape. This jug of moonshine is one of many such items which harkens back to an age of outlaws like the Bondurant brothers. Yet after a set time period, state agencies like the ABC either dispose of such objects or send them to the LVA.

The LVA also used some of its own items in this exhibit. Kimball pointed out a map of the commonwealth from 1909 showing the “wet” and “dry” regions. These maps showed which areas had refused or accepted Prohibition legislation.

Photo from LVA archives

“In the late 19th century, they came up with this thing called ‘local option,’” explained Kimball. Local option allowed regions to choose if they wanted to accept Prohibition or not, yet by 1909 most of the state was dry because of this. Kimball did note however that many of the early distillers in Virginia came from Germany and were ignorant of Prohibition laws.

“A lot of these records…are from just regular people,” said Kimball. He recalled a letter in the archives from a rabbi who was new to the area and unaware that he needed a permit for his sacramental wine. Kimball said this reflects how the lower class were often the ones ensnared in legal trouble from Prohibition.


Photo from LVA archives

Another of the LVA’s exhibitions on Prohibition was titled: Liquor Lore: Enforcement Stories from the Virginia ABC. Sharing a stage with Kimball from the LVA was current ABC special agent Brian Edwards and retired special agent Kyle Blanks, both were invited to discuss their stories of investigating crimes related to alcohol.

The highlight of his presentation was an overview of ‘Operation Lightening Strike‘, which targeted a distillery in Rocky Mount, Virginia. The raid included a joint operation by the IRS, ABC, Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms, along with North Carolina law enforcement. At peak output this distillery was generating around 86,000 gallons of moonshine per week.

Left: ABC special agent Kyle Blanks, Right: ABC special agent Brian Edwards      Photo courtesy of Virginia ABC   

“Some people think of moonshiners as just barefooted guys making moonshine,” said Edwards. “The people that operated these stills were professionals at their trade, they were experts in counter-surveillance.” According to Edwards, even the slightest disturbance in the placement of garbage would alert the moonshiners to law enforcement presence.

Operations Lightning Strike took two years to resolve, and the distillery is estimated to have made around 1.2 million gallons over the course of eight years.

Teetotalers & Moonshiners: Prohibition in Virginia, Distilled is available for free admission to the public at the Library of Virginia. The exhibit will feature video, photographic and document archives from the Prohibition era until it closes on December 5.

Main image from Library of Congress

Step back to the 1920’s tonight at a Yelp benefit for The Byrd Theatre

Amy David | August 6, 2015

Topics: 1920s, party, prohibition, speakeasy, The Broadberry, The Byrd Foundation, Yelp

Gents, grab your fedoras and dapper attire and ladies throw on your best flapper dress and prepare your best “Ol’ Sport’ impression, because [Read more…] about Step back to the 1920’s tonight at a Yelp benefit for The Byrd Theatre

Today’s National Beer Day, commemorating the end of prohibition

Brad Kutner | April 7, 2015

Topics: Cullen–Harrison Act, National Beer Day, prohibition

Today is National Beer day in which we remember the end of one of America’s darkest times, Prohibition.

[Read more…] about Today’s National Beer Day, commemorating the end of prohibition

Hey, It’s National Beer Day! Go Drink Some Beer

Brad Kutner | April 7, 2014

Topics: National Beer Day, prohibition

81 years ago today, the Cullen-Harris Act went into effect, ending the 13 year alcohol prohibition in the US. Now, we here in RVA probably take advantage of the free-flow of suds, but it’s important to remember the beer lovers of years past who fought for our right to imbibe… even on a Monday.
[Read more…] about Hey, It’s National Beer Day! Go Drink Some Beer

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