Prominent filmmaker says Lee removal is exciting but that Richmond must change more than symbols vpm.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from vpm.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
The Progress-Index
While cannabis enthusiasts around the state are celebrating the early days of marijuana legalization, weed arrests in Petersburg have been in decline over the last five years.
The city saw a spike in drug arrests in 2018 and 2019, in which over 500 arrests were made each before sharply declining in 2020. Petersburg Police Department reported a record number of 197 drug arrests to state police for last year. The police department hasn’t seen a number that low since 2015.
“It is a win because it eliminates the disproportionate penalizing against black people,” said Chelsea Higgs Wise, executive director of Marijuana Justice.
Virginia State Police reported a 36.7% decrease in drug arrests, with marijuana arrests dropping over 30% from last year. Similar to Petersburg, the state’s number of marijuana arrests are on the rise up until 2020.
Michael Pope reports.
For advocates pressing for legalization of marijuana, July 1st, 2021 has been a date on the calendar with particular significance. For them, it s the culmination of years of determination in the face of seemingly impossible odds. Jenn Michelle Pedini at Virginia NORML says the end of prohibition is an extraordinary victory. Public policy will finally have caught up with public opinion when it comes to cannabis in the Commonwealth, says Michelle Pedini. Virginians have long been calling for the end of prohibition, and in 2021 their voices are finally being heard.
Marijuana is now legal. But only in small amounts.
With Northamâs signature, Virginia becomes first state in the south to move toward legalization of marijuana
Kisare Bundy had been on probation for most of his adult life when, at 22, a marijuana possession charge sent him to prison for just under a decade.
An ounce and a half in his car toppled his probation status, altering the course of his life and that of his three children, he said in an interview from the Haynesville Correctional Unit 17, one of the stateâs minimum-security prisons.
Once the shock faded, Bundy said he tried to focus his energy on being a âmodel inmateâ and his job. Through the Department of Corrections, Bundy works in a warehouse and is pursuing the certification to drive a forklift. Outside of prison, the job pays well. State records online show his scheduled release date is Jan. 13, 2025.
Marijuana legalization starts July 1 Addressing the impact of prohibition is unfinished work A messy process to legalize the drug is ahead roanoke.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from roanoke.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.