When Virginia Became The First Southern State To Legalize Marijuana

     The 2019 Virginia midterm elections are proof that your vote has consequences. Immediately after Democratic Governor Ralph Northam gained control of the Virginia legislature, a top priority became the decriminalization of cannabis possession. He signed the bill on March 8th, 2020, and decriminalization went into effect on July 1st, 2020.

     On March 25th, 2021, Governor Northam received a bill that would have legalized possession and dispensary sales of marijuana effective July 1st, 2024. Northam recommended the bill be amended to legalize marijuana possession by July 1st, 2021, and dispensary sales by July 1st, 2024; keeping possession illegal until 2024 would have resulted in thousands of unnecessary arrests.

     The legislature took up the revised bill on April 7th, 2021, and after a tie-breaking vote was cast by the lieutenant governor, the law went into effect with the governor's recommendations. The total number of marijuana-related arrests declined by 90 percent within 90 days of going into effect; with half of all drug arrests being marijuana and 90 percent of these being for simple possession, we have seen just how much of a failure the War on Drugs really was, not to mention the racist statistics over who gets arrested.

     In just 18 months, Virginia has gone from a state where only medical marijuana was legal to a state where recreational marijuana was both decriminalized and legalized. We need to elect Terry McAuliffe on November 2nd, 2021, to keep up progressive efforts on criminal justice reform, addiction, and more!