May
By WHSV newsroom
RICHMOND, Va. (WHSV) — On Thursday, Governor Ralph Northam officially signed Virginia’s biennial budget, as well as eight other bills from the General Assembly for which he had requested amendments in the General Assembly’s reconvened April 22 session.
The governor had recommended that lawmakers amend HB 972 to extend Virginia’s study on the legalization of marijuana and not allow a trial by jury for the civil penalty of simple possession. But those proposed amendments were rejected by the General Assembly in their socially distanced April session.
So the law that will go into effect is the one originally passed, which scraps criminal charges for simple possession of marijuana and creates a $25 civil penalty. It also creates a work group to study the impact of legalization of marijuana and eventually release a report on the matter – though that study will be shorter than Northam wanted.
Lawmakers this year killed bills that could have legalized the drug, opting for decriminalization as a slower step forward.
Supporters have argued the measure is needed, in part, because African Americans are disproportionately charged with drug crimes.
“Decriminalization is an incredibly important first step, and one that many thought we may never see in Virginia, but we cannot stop until we have legal and regulated adult use,” Attorney General Mark Herring Herring said in a statement earlier this year.
The new law, which takes effect July 1 despite the rejected amendments, reduces penalties for offenses involving the possession of up to one ounce of marijuana to a civil violation, which means no arrest and no criminal record.
