Arizona begins selling marijuana for recreation, just weeks after voters approved the legalization

Arizona begins selling marijuana for recreation, just weeks after voters approved the legalization

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A Virginia Senate committee on Friday approved a bill to legalize marijuana in the Commonwealth, bringing the proposal a step closer to a full floor vote. Before lawmakers were transferred to another panel, lawmakers defeated a proposal to remove domestic cultivation rights for cannabis.

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

The legislation, introduced last week by Governor Ralph Northam (D) and passed by leading Senate and House leaders, would create a system of regulated and taxed marijuana sales and production, and would allow that adults 21 years and older buy and own up to one gram of cannabis and grow up to four plants for personal use, two of which can be adults.

The panel discussed the subcommittee’s proposals during the hearing Friday. This includes an amendment to establish an independent agency to regulate the marijuana market, rather than to deal with the existing alcohol division of the state as would be the case with the governor’s original proposal. Due to the time it takes to set up the agency, the implementation timeline will be shifted back to 2024 instead of 2023, unless the General Assembly in the meantime speeds up the process.

Members also agreed to retain an adult home growth option, a major victory for reform advocates who claim it will provide a much-needed entry point, especially for low-income people.

There were two votes on the proposal to remove the provisions on personal cultivation; the first was nail-bitingly defeated 8-7 and the second was better dismissed by 10-5.

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

The panel also added safety awareness and provisions on best practice for home construction.

“We welcome the subcommittee to include language wisely to promote safety awareness and best practices for personal cultivation, and to demand that reasonable steps be taken to secure plants from minor access,” said Pedini, who also serves as the national development director of NORML, said.

Legislators also voted in favor of an amendment to revise the legislation so that local jurisdictions should decide not to run cannabis businesses in their areas, instead of joining as originally enacted.

The rationale for the decision boils down to a recent policy change in Virginia that no longer allows for ‘dry’ counties, but rather that jurisdictions should choose to allow alcohol businesses by referendum.

The full committee further adopted an amendment to tighten the admission requirements in the social equity licensing policy. The original bill stipulated that a business should own 50 percent of the underprivileged, but members approved an amendment that increased it to 66 percent.

Members accepted proposals to intensify public drug abuse campaigns and to enable the integration of medical cannabis, marijuana and hemp businesses, rather than making them work separately.

Senator Jeremey McPike (D), chair of the panel’s subcommittee on marijuana, concluded that he appreciated how members worked together on this proposal, saying: “Although there were people who opposed the overall idea, I think ‘ in a dual way, members of the subcommittee really wanted to try to improve the different components and parts in a very collaborative way. ”

“It’s still going through several committees and several more opportunities to refine it better,” he said.

With this vote, the legislation now goes to the Judiciary Committee, which will adopt provisions on crimes and penalties in its area of ​​jurisdiction. Thereafter, the Finance Committee will examine components such as the proposed tax policy before the bill goes to the full Senate floor.

Meanwhile, the House of Representatives is expected to adopt an additional version of the legislation soon.

At least one senator took up the charity of this legislative process and complained about the time he was given to review the recently revised long bill before Friday’s sitting.

The provisions of the legislation as enacted were notified by two official state studies on legalization recently conducted by a legislative commission and a separate working group consisting of four cabinet secretaries of Virginia and other officials, both of whom looked at how to make legalization effective. to implement and what has been submitted. recommendations to the governor’s office late last year.

These studies were required under a marijuana decriminalization bill passed last year.

Many of these recommendations have been incorporated into the new legislation, including provisions to promote social equity in the cannabis market. In particular, it will divide half of the tax revenue that the state collects from marijuana sales to the financing of kindergarten education – a policy advocated by First Lady Pamela Northam.

A new 21 percent tax will be levied on cannabis sales, and local jurisdictions that allow marijuana businesses to operate could levy an additional three percent tax. Existing state sales tax also applies to purchases for a total potential tax rate of 30 percent.

The revenue from the new state tax would fund money for pre-k education (40 percent), a reinvestment fund for cannabis (30 percent), drug abuse and treatment programs (25 percent), and public health initiatives (five percent).

Advocates generally welcomed the legislature’s quick decision to institute legalization, although some expressed frustration over the limited scope of the provisions on social equity.

This introduction of the bill came a month after the governor included provisions to lay the foundation for cannabis legalization, in a budget proposal that also calls for millions of dollars to support scrapping. Northam has campaigned for the decriminalization of possession, but he publicly supports the broader legalization of marijuana for adults.

Northam said during his State of the Union address last week that cannabis bans were deliberately introduced as a way to discriminate against people of color.

Separate legislation to legalize weeds for adults was passed by Del earlier this month. Steve Heretick (D) submitted. An accompanying version of the bill, sponsored by Senator Joe Morrisey (D), was also considered by the Senate panel on Friday, but it was formally incorporated into the governor’s proposal and he was added as main sponsor.

Meanwhile, legislation to stop police from searching people or seizing land based solely on the smell of marijuana in Virginia is in effect after lawmakers passed recommended changes by the governor in October.

During the recent special session, Northam signed another bill that would allow people to pay subpoenas for cannabis offenses under the state’s new decriminalization law, rather than appearing in court.

Read the amended marijuana legalization bill:

Virginia legalizing marijuana … by Marijuana Moment

Photo courtesy of Brian Shamblen.

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