:
A flowering marijuana plant at the gLeaf facility. (Photo: Alex Scribner/VPM News)
Virginia cannabis connoisseurs will have to wait nearly three years before the drug is fully legalized under a plan approved by the General Assembly on Saturday. And while the Jan. 1, 2024 start date is firm under the current legislation, lawmakers will have to re-approve large parts of the regulations guiding legalization when they meet next year.
The bill now heads to Gov. Ralph Northam, who has made legalization a priority in his final year in office.
The agreement passed over the objections of a coalition of criminal justice advocates ranging from the ACLU of Virginia to the advocacy group Marijuana Justice. Many had pushed for the state to remove all fines and penalties for possessing the drug beginning July 1 of this year. Seven Democratic lawmakers in the House of Delegates appeared to agree, sitting out the vote.
by staff | February 26, 2021
Racial-justice, COVID-19 and higher-education concerns dominated conversations as William & Mary students lobbied Virginia Governor Ralph Northam and other elected state officials during the 2021 Road to Richmond event on Feb. 10, conducted “virtually” for the first time this year. Underpinning cautious optimism on addressing specific issues, however, was the reality of the toll exacted on the economy by the COVID-19 pandemic.
In his opening comments, Northam suggested the commonwealth was “doing well” compared to other states regarding COVID-19, which he attributed to state residents following established guidelines. Still, 1.5 million Virginians filed for unemployment during the pandemic, food insecurity has increased to the point where 20 percent of residents “don’t know where their next meal is coming from,” and the prospect of forced evictions hangs over thousands o
744 views
BILLS STILL ALIVE
Don’t let the long list fool you. While the majority of the bills we’ve been following have either passed both chambers or seem well on their way to doing so, some of the most impactful bills are now dead, and others have been amended into meekness.
The entire category of Utility Reform got emptied out into the dumpster in Senate Commerce and Labor, which also killed Jeff Bourne’s “right to shop” bill that would have opened up the renewable energy market. They are all now found under “Dead and Buried” at the end.
Virginia collected slightly more tax revenue in the past 11 months than it did in either of the previous two years, despite a public health emergency that has devastated parts