Indopedia All Things Marijuana
Virginia may be the next state in line to decriminalize low-level cannabis offenses, if new legislation proposed by the state’s Senate majority leader makes it through the state legislature next year. The Virginian-Pilot reports that State Senator Tommy Norment has announced plans to propose a bill in 2018 that would make first-time cannabis possession a civil offense. The exact language of the bill is still being drafted, but an initial offense would be punished by a fine, mandatory education, and a driver’s license suspension, rather than jail time.
Norment made his announcement during a presentation on decriminalization held by the state’s Crime Commission this Monday. Colin Drabert, senior staff attorney for the commission, presented the results of a new study on the possible ramifications of decriminalization in Virginia, which the commission had ordered earlier this year. The study notes that “males, young adults, and blacks are overrepresented in the total number of arrests for possession as compared to their overall general population in Virginia.”
The study reports that out of the 133,256 cannabis-related arrests made in Virginia over the past decade, 84% were…
