Arizona starts recreational marijuana sales, just weeks after voters pass legalization

Arizona starts recreational marijuana sales, just weeks after voters pass legalization

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A committee of the Virginia Senate on Friday passed a bill to legalize marijuana in the community, bringing the proposal one step closer to a plenary vote. Before advancing legislation to another panel, lawmakers defeated a proposal to remove domestic cannabis cultivation rights.

The Senate Rehabilitation and Social Services Committee passed the legislation in an 8-7 vote. Members also accepted a series of amendments recommended by a newly formed subcommittee that focuses exclusively on marijuana policy and that held two hearings on the project earlier this week.

The legislation, which was unveiled by Governor Ralph Northam (D) last week and is being passed by top Senate and House leaders, would create a regulated and taxed marijuana production and sales system and allow adults 21 and older buy and own up to 30 g of cannabis and grow up to four plants for personal use, two of which may be ripe.

During Friday’s hearing, the panel discussed and approved the subcommittee’s proposals. This includes an amendment to establish an independent agency to regulate the marijuana market, rather than having the state’s existing alcohol division handle this as would be the case under the original governor’s proposal. Due to the time it will take to set up this agency, the implementation schedule will be postponed to 2024 instead of 2023, unless the General Assembly speeds up the process in the meantime.

Members also agreed to maintain a home-grown option for adult consumers, a significant victory for reform advocates who argue that it will provide a necessary access point, especially for low-income people.

There were two votes on a proposal to remove provisions for personal cultivation; the first was defeated by narrow 8-7 and the second was rejected more strongly by 10-5.

“NORML is pleased that the cooler heads prevailed, defeating an absurd motion to remove personal cultivation from the bill. Virginians have been very outspoken in their support for this priority, whether for medical or adult use, and the legislature must respond to the demands of its constituents, ”Jenn Michelle Pedini, executive director of NORML Virginia, told Marijuana Moment. “Without the ability to grow for personal use, many Virgos will be left without any reasonable measure of access to safe cannabis products in their area.”

The panel also added safety awareness and provision of best practice guidance for home cultivation.

“We applaud the subcommittee for intelligently including language to enact safety awareness and best practices for personal cultivation, and to demand that reasonable measures be taken to protect plants against access by minors,” said Pedini, who also acts as director of national development at NORML.

Lawmakers also voted in favor of an amendment to revise the legislation so that local jurisdictions would have to choose not to allow cannabis companies to operate in their areas, rather than as originally drafted.

The justification for this decision came from a recent policy change in Virginia that no longer allows “dry” counties and instead requires jurisdictions to choose not to allow alcohol deals through a referendum.

The full committee also accepted a change to restrict eligibility requirements in the social action licensing policy. The original bill stipulated that a company should have 50 percent ownership by disadvantaged people, but members approved an amendment increasing that to 66 percent.

Members also accepted proposals to strengthen public education campaigns on substance misuse and allow the integration of medical marijuana, adult marijuana and marijuana businesses, rather than requiring them to operate separately.

Senator Jeremey McPike (D), chairman of the panel’s marijuana subcommittee, said in his closing remarks that he appreciates the way members collaborated on this proposal, saying “although there were people who oppose the general idea, I think in a bipartisan way, the subcommittee members really sought to try to improve the various components and parts in a very collaborative way. “

“This will still go through several committees and several other opportunities to further refine this,” he said.

With this vote, the legislation goes to the Judiciary Commission, which, within its competence, will deal with crimes and penalties. After that, the Finance Committee will examine components such as the proposed tax policy before the bill reaches the Senate floor.

In the meantime, the Chamber of Delegates is expected to soon adopt a complementary version of the legislation.

At least one senator questioned the suitability of this legislative process, complaining about the time he was given to review the recently revised extensive bill before Friday’s meeting.

The provisions of the legislation as introduced were informed by two official state studies on legalization that were recently conducted by a legislative commission and a separate working group composed of four Virginia cabinet secretaries and other officials, both of whom looked at how to effectively implement the legalization and sent recommendations to the governor’s office late last year.

These studies were required by a marijuana decriminalization bill approved last year.

Many of these recommendations have been incorporated into the new legislation, including provisions to promote social equality in the cannabis market. Notably, it would also distribute nearly half of the tax revenue that the state collects from marijuana sales to finance pre-school education – a policy advocated by First Lady Pamela Northam.

A new 21% tax would be imposed on cannabis sales, and local jurisdictions that allow marijuana companies to operate could charge an additional 3% tax. Existing state sales taxes also apply to purchases, for a potential total rate of 30%.

The proceeds of the new state tax would go to finance pre-k education (40 percent), a Cannabis Heritage Reinvestment Fund (30 percent), substance misuse and treatment programs (25 percent) and initiatives public health (five percent).

Defenders welcomed the rapid move by the legislature to enact legalization, although some have expressed frustration at the limited scope of their social equality provisions.

The introduction of the bill came a month after the governor included provisions to lay the groundwork for legalizing cannabis in a budget proposal that also calls for millions of dollars to support spending. Northam campaigned to merely decriminalize possession, but publicly supported broader legalization of marijuana for adult consumption in November.

Northam said during his speech on the State of the Commonwealth last week that the ban on cannabis was deliberately enacted as a means of discriminating against people of color.

Separate legislation to legalize cannabis for adult use was introduced by Del. Steve Heretick (D) earlier this month. A complementary version of this bill, sponsored by Senator Joe Morrisey (D), was also submitted for consideration by the Senate panel on Friday, but was formally incorporated into the governor’s proposal and he was added as the main sponsor.

In the meantime, legislation to prevent police from searching people or seizing property based solely on the smell of marijuana in Virginia is expected to go into effect after lawmakers adopted the changes recommended by the governor in October.

Also during the recently concluded special session, Northam signed another bill that will allow people issued citations for cannabis offenses under the new state decriminalization law to pay their civil penalty in advance instead of appearing in court.

Read the amended bill for the legalization of marijuana below:

Virginia Marijuana Legalizes… by Marijuana Moment

Photo courtesy of Brian Shamblen.

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