In historic shift, Virginia lawmakers pass marijuana legalization bills

Another state has now joined the legalized marijuana club. Virginia has just passed legislation legalizing the adult recreational use of marijuana and expunges the criminal records of those charged under marijuana convictions.

Under the new legislation, marijuana.would be taxed an regulated under the alcoholic beverage control authority.

It's a good step. It's a plant, with a ton of industrial benefits along with what an increasing body of evidence is showing is positive health benefits, its negative side effects are eclipsed by such things as tobacco, alcohol, and most pharmaceutical drugs and was made illegal mostly due to corporate interests in the cotton and oil industries under a veil of racism.

It's also peovides viable business opportunities for individuals with a relatively low barrier of entry. Which offers the possibility of lifting low income communities out of poverty without government assistance.

wset.com...

Both chambers of the Virginia General Assembly have passed legislation that would legalize marijuana for adult recreational use, with retail sales starting several years down the road.

There are substantial differences between the two bills that must be worked out before they can be sent to Gov. Ralph Northam. If the legislation is signed into law, Virginia would join 15 other states and the neighboring District of Columbia in legalizing small amounts of marijuana for adult recreational use.

The bill will eliminate criminal penalties for marijuana possession for anyone 21 or older.

According to the Virginia House, the bill also modifies several other criminal penalties related to marijuana and provides for an automatic expungement process for those convicted of certain marijuana-related crimes.

The bill will also establish a regulatory scheme for the regulation of marijuana cultivation facilities, marijuana manufacturing facilities, marijuana testing facilities, marijuana wholesalers, and retail marijuana stores by the Virginia Alcoholic Beverage Control Authority, renamed as the Virginia Alcoholic Beverage and Cannabis Control Authority.

There will also be a tax on retail marijuana, retail marijuana products, marijuana paraphernalia and other products

I'm sure their noble reasoning for legalization couldn't be to enrich themselves somehow, noooooooo... they truly care about the medicinal benefits.

🙄

No guns but plenty of hashish..🤔

Notice how they're not legislating to remove the marijuana stipulation from the background check questionnaire? Soon, the databases will be unified and no more self protection for you potheads!

Nothing like keeping the population complacent and dopey whilst tightening the noose..

🤦🏾‍♂️

a reply to: dug88

Heavvvvy mannnn.



I have nothing against CBD oil or against people using it for medicine but you know like any form of smoking it is not good for you and it can be a step on the ladder toward a worse habit.

That said Cheech and Chong.

a reply to: EternalShadow

Notice how they're not legislating to remove the marijuana stipulation from the background check questionnaire?

Missed that little part.

That's too bad...i guess they're going to take the Canada route for legalization and give production to corporations while actually making possesion laws slightly worse and including multiple monetary fines for things that never used to actually be technically crimes.

Mostly i just hope when i see a legalization thing, they're not going that route...that is...pretending to legalize while making regulations so much worse than when it was criminalized...i guess i should just realize by now...governments just don't give a #...even when it seems like they do..

originally posted by: dug88
It's also peovides viable business opportunities for individuals with a relatively low barrier of entry. Which offers the possibility of lifting low income communities out of poverty without government assistance.

Well that's not true though. If anything legalization has the opposite effect.

They touched on the subject in that documentary 'Murder Mountain'. Where a lot of people who have been supplying the black market industry for all these years, just simply don't have the capitol (or even connections) to compete in a legal and highly regulated cannabis industry.

Its particularly ironic in the Humboldt (or California as a whole) region, since it was the hippies from there who traveled to Afghanistan and collected indica seeds in the sixties. Brought them back home and eventually created stabilized hybrids, which are now the backbone of basically every modern cannabis strain in the world.

All that ground work by all those people who always constantly had the prospect of long prison terms hanging over their heads have now been made irrelevant... Its a necessary evil, obviously.

Still though, it is kind of unfortunate for them.

And the decline into the cesspool continues in the US....

It's not often your hometown TV station is a source on ATS yet here it is. Feels a trifle odd especially given the subject. Virginia has been so hard on weed for the 50 years I've been here it would be nice to have decriminalization. I have some rooms not being used - is it time to become a herbin' farmer?

originally posted by: Asktheanimals
It's not often your hometown TV station is a source on ATS yet here it is. Feels a trifle odd especially given the subject. Virginia has been so hard on weed for the 50 years I've been here it would be nice to have decriminalization. I have some rooms not being used - is it time to become a herbin' farmer?

Try it, you'll be surprised by your greenthumb, knowing full well that you grew and raised it.

originally posted by: LABTECH767
a reply to: dug88

Heavvvvy mannnn.

I have nothing against CBD oil or against people using it for medicine but you know like any form of smoking it is not good for you and it can be a step on the ladder toward a worse habit.

That said Cheech and Chong.

I know a few people who have used it as a way out of a worse habit as you call it.
Most people won't manage cold turkey to stop their habit and cannabis has it's uses as a virtually harmless crutch.

originally posted by: LABTECH767

I have nothing against CBD oil or against people using it for medicine but you know like any form of smoking it is not good for you and it can be a step on the ladder toward a worse habit.

Not being good for you is not a good enough reason for it to be illegal. There's LOTS of things that aren't good for you and that are steps on the ladder toward a worst habit.

Legalize!

originally posted by: Gothmog
And the decline into the cesspool continues in the US....

I see that Reefer Madness had the desired effect on you.
Why is it people shall we say of a certain age have a bigoted ''drugs are bad!''attitude.
Do you feel the same about alcohol,you should because drink makes instant asshole,everyone can see it but it's socially acceptable.

a reply to: LABTECH767 Why not the concern of the worst gateway drug ,killer and destroyer of family,liquor? you sound like an alchy trying to offset your insecurities,sad the ignorance of public,never bothering to look up any damn facts,have to try and look cool,go with crowd

a docile population is a pliable one

I mean, if Oklahoma is allowing pot....then i see no chance in stopping the landslide. Im completely unshocked that the newly blued VA would do this.

As a driver, I view pot with the same disdain as alcohol and phones.

You claim its innocent, but in reality, it's just another excuse to be stupid in public settings.

Literally watched a highway, open up for an ambulance, only for the ambulance to get stuck behind a mofo going 40 mph with an ambulance tailgating on a 65 highway.

Now you'll pull the classic defense, how do you know they were high? Behavioral profiling. You can tell when someone is texting on their phone. Had one too many drinks and reacts severely to sudden lights coming at them on the highway.

Then theres those who think they're going fast enough, but running 10 under the speed limit. They fall into the same category as elderly people. (Ironic I guess)

Tldr, you want legalization, stop pulling the Democrat card and accept that people abuse it and can endanger other lifes as easily as alcohol or distracted driving.

Until then, you're just running a personal agenda.

Edit: Queue potheads coming in and getting angry without reading the post. Any mind or body altering substance has no business on the road. I don't care what you do in your girlfriends parents basement, but try to be sober when driving.

a reply to: Nivhk

My only comment on that is there are studies done that show the effect of pot on driving are nearly non-existant. Perhaps the profiling you are doing on behavior is picking up people who are stupid or simpletons? You know, correlation not being causation and all that.

I would disagree with zero of what you are saying if there is data backing any of it up, and wasn't just your opinion based on your anecdotes where you are admitting to making stuff up to fill in gaps in what you know about people for the sake of drawing said opinion.

Legalization in Illinois created lots of cash for politicians and the companies the politicians chose to grow, process, dispense the drug. More profitable than gambling, as long as users buy from authorized marijuana sellers.

originally posted by: glen200376

originally posted by: Gothmog
And the decline into the cesspool continues in the US....

I see that Reefer Madness had the desired effect on you.
Why is it people shall we say of a certain age have a bigoted ''drugs are bad!''attitude.
Do you feel the same about alcohol,you should because drink makes instant asshole,everyone can see it but it's socially acceptable.

Reefer Madness had the desired effect on you.

It used to . in the 70s
Then I grew up.

a reply to: Gothmog

I believe as an adult I should be able to do as I wish and put what ever in it I wish to try, obviously not harming anyone else.

and for sure no one should be put in a cage for use of ANY substance as long as they aren't causing harm to anyone else

that being said I wonder where the line is for true legalization, by that I mean everything. Imagine treating substance use like getting a beer or something from the pharmacy(with consult by the pharmacist if wanted).

its interesting what is okay and what isn't.

i graduated in 2003 and there were a few times I was talking to a police officer about what I was just smoking(no arrests) so to see weed smoking open as regular smoking, it blows my mind.

a reply to: penroc3

I believe as an adult I should be able to do as I wish and put what ever in it I wish to try, obviously not harming anyone else.

So , complete law2lessness ?